United We Stand, Divided We Fall
by Storyteller21
Summary: Young Justice heroes find themselves in a time traveling trap, later on in the Titans world, which is the future. The two teams help each other get out alive of a mission that might be their most dangerous. Friendships are made, and love gets in the way, but the most important thing is to keep each other alive. Star/Rob, Raven/BB, Wally/Artemis, Superboy/M gain. UPDATED! 14/02/2018
1. Chapter 1

IMPORTANT NOTICE! DEFINITELY STOP SCROLLING AND READ THIS!

Since I suck at keeping promises, I forced myself to upload the first chapter of the YJ/TT crossover I have been working on since YJ got cancelled (yes, I've been working more than a year on this) and still am.

It is my first "complex" story, and by complex I mean much more characters, a plot line that had to be followed, and a very long story, I'm working on chapter 28 as I write this. This is the introduction to everything.

PLEASE REMEMBER, THIS WAS STARTED BEFORE YJ WAS CANCELED, which means that the characters that were introduced later on (Beast boy, Cassie and such) are not included. This story will have Robin (Richard Grayson), Aqualad, Superboy, Red Arrow, Kid Flash, M'gann, and Artemis. As for the titans, you'll see Robin, Cyborg, Beastly, Starfire and Raven for now. Maybe you'll see much more in the future.

Because I am a movie freak, lots of what happens in the crossover will be similar to scenes of "Mission: Impossible; The Ghost Protocol" just because i could totally imagine them doing the badass things that happened. You can still read it If you haven't seen it, its pretty old so I'm sure its online somewhere. I just didn't want to take creative credit over some things that happen.

That's about it. I hope you enjoy, and I'll be sure to update twice a week, since I've got up to 30 chapters written. Any questions and suggestions are appreciated, and I'm super excited about this :D. Don't forget to R&R!

* * *

Happy Harbor.

A place where citizens lived happily, over the protection of 6 young heroes in training, and over their constant watching eyes. To see a speedster in yellow costume making it's way for a pizza, or to catch a glimpse of a teenager with jet black hair and dark glasses on a motorcycle, for the citizens, was completely normal, and the identities of the heroes have been kept secret, but they always had their run-ins with the public media.

Happy Harbor had been perfectly safe, as safe as could be right now. The most dangerous thing ever happening in the last months would be a bank robbery, or intent of murder by some new villain with a lame rhyming name and an almost-as-lame costume. They were all caught in time and taken to jail.

But this was always thought to be the silence, before the storm, as said by the public media, once again doing their job, and scaring citizens without any evidence or reasons, just because.

During one of those mornings, Black Canary came over to help with the training, as usual. Superboy walked around an invisible circle placed on the middle of the room, narrowing his eyes at her. Black Canary smirked. The rest of the team stood up at Aqualad's side. Waiting for someone to attack. Kid Flash scoffed chips out of his bag noisily; Artemis sighed and looked at him.

"Would you mind?" She said crossing her arms over her chest. Staring at the bag and then back at the freckled teen.

Kid flash innocently smiled. "Sorry" He said in between a mouth full of chips. Artemis raised an eyebrow, and turned her attention back into the clone and Black Canary.

After some time Super Boy lunged at the elder hero. With a swift move, Black Canary took hold of his wrist, turning it. Bringing him to the floor. Super Boy grunted in pain, but kept his crouched position. She supported herself on his fisted hands and pushed her body forward, almost doing a static handstand over the crouched teen. As she landed her supportive leg drew a circle, knocking him off balance and leaving him on the floor.

Robin clapped sarcastically grinning as Aqualad helped Superboy up. Lately, the training sessions hadn't been as much fun as before, since the city was so quiet, the heroes didn't try as hard, but still knew they couldn't afford to act like this during a fight.

"Good job Superboy, but you need to work on your reflexes." Black Canary placed her hands on her hips and smiled sweetly.

Superboy flinched at her last words and Aqualad placed a supportive hand on his shoulder.

A robotic voice was heard bouncing over the room, calling the young team's attention. They were being called to the briefing room to meet Batman and Red Tornado for a mission, they hoped. Robin fist pumped and shared a high-five with Kid Flash cheering like five year olds.

As both of them sped off like toddlers into a candy store, the rest of the team followed.

In the briefing room, Red Tornado and Batman were facing the monitors. They knew when the team had arrived, listening to kid flash fighting with Robin and spun to meet them. As the team entered, eyes widened and mouths fell open, then Kid Flash spoke, not believing who was standing in front of him.

"Red Arrow?" He said.

Indeed. Red Arrow stood beside Red Tornado, wearing his usual costume, including the hat. His arrow bag was full, as if ready to fight. He kept his expression dull, but seemed to be saving some kind of emotion to himself.

"Team. Red Arrow will help you throughout this mission for your convenience." Batman stood up from his seat, moving to Red Arrow's opposite side. "We have reviewed it and we decided it was the best to have the most help you could."

Artemis and Aqualad exchanged glances and Aqualad shrugged. M'gann moved forward narrowing her eyes suspectively.

"May I ask the reason?"

Silence settled over everyone in the room. Batman and Red Tornado looked at each other and then at Red Arrow.

"The mission might be a lead to a bigger problem, so you'll need all the help you can get." Red Arrow said, clearing his throat and looking at the Martian.

"Here" The Dark Knight tapped some commands on the super computer keyboard and a holographic screen appeared in front of the team. Pictures of the Steel City museum were scattered, with police stopping the trespassing of any outer citizens.

"Yesterday there was a break in into Steel City's museum. Some Justice League members were sent in for further investigation but the security staff didn't say anything. They didn't even let them in. We believe it was a secondary effect by whoever broke in. They forgot everything about it. No security camera footage, no footstep marks." He turned to look at the team once again. "Nothing."

Silence fell over the team for some seconds.

"So you're saying," Robin moved forward. "We have to work with people that don't remember anything about what happened?"

"Positive." Red Tornado answered automatically.

Robin shrugged defensively. "Challenge Accepted." He said with a devilish smirk.

"You can depart right now. The museum is closed but you have permission to go inside. Break in it, if you have to." Red Tornado motioned the team to the launching bay and they moved silently, Red Arrow followed. Wasn't this going to be interesting..?

As M'gann's bio-ship roared to life, the team was already boarding, Red Arrow placed a hand on Kaldur's shoulder. He turned around to see him mouth agape, he smirked.

"It's a bio-ship, it can camouflage." He said.

Red Arrow turned his expression serious and looked at him.

"Oh" He said. "That does not surprise me"

Both of them entered and sat at their respective seats. The seat belts started draping across their chests and M'gann sat in the middle tapping the co-ordinates.

"We are heading to the Steel City museum. It won't be a very long drive, so It's better if we know the way of departure, Kaldur?" She turned to the leader, looking across the Bio- ship's glass. Obviously, it was a pretty long drive, the team considered it short since their last mission included a 5 hour drive, no stopping, no sleeping, to a different city.

"Since we might not be let inside, it could be better if we broke in quietly." Kaldur said turning to his team.

"Sounds good." Kid Flash said, relaxing on his seat.

"Robin and Artemis, guard the entrance until we are all inside. Then if it's necessary, we'll have to split up. Just stay with these orders until now." He said, waiting for his team to agree.

"Aye Cap'n." Robin sat straight on his seat, as the humongous steel door opened up to reveal another beautiful afternoon at the city, it wouldn't last long, by the time they got to Steel City, it was going to be around 8:00 p.m. at least. The Bio- Ship went off.

"Hang on!" M'gann announced as the ship soared through the clear skies.

* * *

"Artemis, Robin you can now..."

"Way ahead of you dude!" Robin hollered back before jumping outside on top of the museum's rooftop with Artemis.

"Do they ever listen?" Kaldur walked forward to where the Boy Wonder stood seconds ago. "M'gann can you leave the bio-ship in cloaking mode while we're in? A big red ship hovering over a museum doesn't look normal."

"Sure thing, we just need to be sure to be here after and hour." M'gann unstrapped herself from her seat and followed Kaldur ready to depart.

"Cloaking mode? We don't need any stinking cloaking mode, Happy Harbor citizens are used to things like this." Kid Flash sped to M'gann's side.

"Steel City citizens aren't, so we can't push it." Red Arrow stood by the shadows, his voice somber.

"Hey! Get out of there! We're safe to go!" They all heard Artemis' voice come from under the ship and got ready.

"Let's go." Superboy said.

M'gann, Kaldur, Kid Flash, Superboy and Red Arrow landed safely on the roof.

The museum at this time was closed, and the several yellow 'Do not cross' police bands were almost wrapping the entire building, making it clear that breaking in was a wise idea after all.

"Hmm, Superboy can you..." Kaldur was cut off when the clone stood in front of him before he could finish talking.

"My pleasure." His eyes started glowing red, and by a matter of seconds, circles big enough for each team member were being drawn on the rooftop, their edges boiling with red bubbles. The metallic circles fell, and M'gann caught them mid air, placing them in a pile away from herself and the others.

"Ladies first." Kid Flash said smoothly, bowing down and glancing at Artemis. She narrowed her eyes, but jumped inside the building while M'gann followed.

When the team was inside, they found themselves in the fossil's room. The halls were pretty large, and the museum wasn't that big from the inside. But still the darkness engulfed most of the place, which made it harder to look at where they were walking into. The only light they could work with, was the moon, and some other tiny light bulbs that adorned the halls with weak fluorescent lights.

"Team, stick together." Kaldur said walking cautiously into the room.

By the end of the hall, Robin saw a bright light that shone weakly, followed by a soft voice. Squinting his eyes, he extended his arm to his side, stopping Kaldur mid-way.

"Shh listen" Robin silenced and the team heard. It was a male voice, talking to himself.

"Piece of cake." Kid Flash adjusted his goggles and sped across everyone and stopped at where Kaldur and Robin stood, with a furious looking Superboy in front of him.

"What?" He said annoyed.

"Look, in front of you." Superboy talked in between pauses. Kid Flash cocked his head a bit to the right and blinked twice. A pattern of red lasers crossed each other, hovering above the floor.

"Heh. Yeah, bout that…"

"You're not that much of a fast thinker are you?" Superboy crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Fast with the legs, not with the head" Robin said while he tapped some commands on a holographic pad connected to the wall.

"That's not cool" Kid Flash fumed. The lasers disappeared and Robin did a little bow in front of the team.

"Impressive" Red Arrow said as he walked further into the hallway, now standing where the lasers once where, and reaching for an arrow.

The team gathered together silently. They could see a man in his late forties, skinny and tall, wearing a metallic suit with a clock over his chest and some blue liquid running through clear piped adhered over his body. A mustache was over his upper lip section and his eyes glowed with evilness.

"This time, my plan will work! I know it!" He said as he connected two pipes together. A yellow substance started flowing through them and feeding a nearby humongous clock that started ticking loudly. He smiled evilly and then a birdarang flew over his chest, leaving a dent on his suit.

"Agh! What in the..." He turned around to see the team. Robin lowered his arm and smiled, while Kaldur got into fighting stance with the others.

"Oh you kids. I've heard so much about you. Teenagers that save the world, or, sidekicks that save the world?" He thought for a moment. "You oddly remind me of some other kids that do the same as you, I am sure you could be great friends!" He said happily.

Red Arrow flinched slightly at the term 'sidekick', and readied his bow for attack. Squinting his eyes and watching his target with attention.

"Who are you!" Kaldur said with authority.

The man walked forward with pride.

"I am Warp. Master of time! Creator of the future! And I shall make your future miserable, as for I shall reign the world after my portal is completed!"

Kaldur attacked with a column of water flowing at Warp. He easily avoided it with a jump to a nearby steel cube, chuckling silently.

"Well, time is gold, and I wouldn't waste a piece of it with you children." He said. A buzzing blue portal appeared over Warp's head and the clock's buzzing became higher. Clicking a button, the portal started sucking everything in it's way.

"What the…" He turned to see what the source of the damage was, following the flowing pipes, and found Kid Flash crouching over them. "YOU!" Warp pointed at the speedster manipulating the clock's inner hardware. "Get away from my baby!"

"Yo." He said sarcastically, resting his hip on some heavy machinery near the clock.

Warp was about to scream at him when his legs rose and started being sucked into the portal. It wasn't long until the whole team was being attracted by it.

M'gann tried closing the clock with one of her portals, which was useless since the power it let loose was stronger. Superboy grabbed onto a pillar, which only ended breaking after the attraction only got stronger. Artemis and Red Arrow were holding a pipe that was left unattended by the villain, trying to reach further away from the machine, but turned impossible after their whole bodies were in the air and being sucked into it.

"Stay close together!" Kaldur got to scream before closing his eyes. The last thing he saw was bright white light, and then everything turned black.


	2. Chapter 2

Wow look at me keeping my promises, hope I keep this up.

Anyway, I have been re reading everything and fixed a few mistakes I had with each heroes powers, since I was mixing them up in the first chapter *blushes*

But I love the encouragement, so if you do see something that doesn't really add up PLEASE let me know.

See you next chapter! :)

* * *

Kaldur opened his eyes, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his head to be able to inspect his surroundings. He was laying flat on a pavement street. Standing up weakly he rubbed his head and turned around to see the rest of the team lying over the grass of a nearby park, he sighed relieved, walking over to them. The people in the park had started to notice, puling out their phones and whispering to each other,so he figured it would be a good idea to leave the place immediately. But then, he noticed something in the distance.

A robbery was happening right in front of him.

His super hero instincts kicked in and he ran faster to his fallen comrades. Shaking M'gann, she opened her eyes slowly and before she could ask any questions, the noise of the robbery got louder. She and Aqualad entered a dark alley across the street were the thief held an innocent lady by the hand.

"Let her go!" Aqualad said.

The robber turned around and started laughing.

"You must be new." He said as he threw the purse to Aqualad's hand leaving the girl crying on the street. M'gann walked forward to comfort her while Kaldur stood looking at the purse, thinking deeply.

"New?" He thought. "What did he mean by new?" he said aloud this time. The teenager stood up and kept her eyes bowed. She raised her head only enough for Aqualad to see her eyes, thanked him, took her purse and ran away.

A blow of red, yellow and green shot Aqualad and he was pinned to the floor, face to face to an older version of Robin. His facial features looked more mature, his voice was deeper, and his Adam's apple could be seen from a close distance. His masked eyes narrowed, as he held him down with great force, much stronger than what the Robin he knew had. He stared for a second before words could come out.

"Robin?" He said bewildered, his eyes open like saucers

"Who are you?!" Robin spoke loudly, forcing an answer out of him and grabbing him by his collar, lifting up his head. This made Aqualad widen his eyes even more.

"It's me, Aqualad. Kaldur" He said calmly. Robin's grip softened somewhat, his masked eyes widened a bit and he let go.

"Kaldur? Is that you?" Robin stood up and helped the fallen hero. Kaldur looked around to see M'gann inspecting a pale skinned girl wearing a dark blue cloak. Across the street, the rest of the team we're being helped as well, by a buff Cyborg, a tanned green eyed and red haired girl and some green teenager.

"What is… Where…?

"I think you have a lot of questions right now." Robin started walking across the street with M'gann beside Kaldur. At the sudden sight of the hero, M'gann gasped.

"Robin… is that really you?" Her eyes turned to slits and Robin offered a warm smile.

"Good to see you too Miss M." He said. M'gann blushed at the sight of his voice. He looked so old, and mature, and easy to the eyes. "It definitely is a surprise."

Raven maintained her silence as Robin turned around. She looked at him, demanding answers.

"I'll explain everything in the tower. Tell the rest to help them in." Robin said. Raven nodded and pulled up her cloak, hiding her violet orbs.

Kid Flash stood up and rubbing his neck, he looked around the park, catching sight of a slim figure helping Artemis up. Squinting his eyes, he caught a better sight of her gorgeous green orbs, not human looking at all, but still filled with beauty.

"Whoa…" He said quietly.

"Sure Kid, don't help me, I don't need help at all." Robin said from the ground rubbing his neck as well.

"Here" a deep voice offered a green glove hand. Not caring to see who it was, Robin extended his arm and took it.

"Thanks." He kept his gaze on the ground as he tried to clean his suit. When his eyes were brought up, he was amazed by what he saw. His own self, but maybe a couple of years older. His mouth was half open, while his older self just smirked.

"Dude! He looks exactly like you!" Beast boy looked at Robin.

"He is me" Robin kept his gaze fixed on the younger teen.

"Good to see you." He smiled warmly and the younger Robin did too.

"Mind to explain what is going on?" The younger hero finally got some words out.

"Yeah, I think we're all confused here." Kid Flash piped into the conversation.

"Let's get to the tower, I'll explain everything there." Robin moved towards the building, with a green bird hovering over him, a Cyborg and a blue cape following him, and a tall red head walking by his side, leaving the other team, completely unaware of what their location was. When he saw no movement from the other team he turned around. "Come on." He said.

"Should we?" Artemis asked aloud.

"Yes. It's Robin after all" Red Arrow started to walk towards the tower, where the Titans waited, and the others followed.

Entering the tower, the Young Justice team mouths opened agape and their eyes wide open. The entrance was larger than Mount Justice's tunnel. Hell, The Tower itself was bigger than Mount Justice. As they moved forward they found Robin's older self waiting for their arrival. M'gann stepped forward and narrowed her eyes. The common room held the perfect view of the ocean in front of them, and it was as big as a room in Mt. Justice.

"So… You are Robin?" She asked.

"You said it yourself." The older counter part smiled and from one second to another M'gann hugged him fiercely.

"Oh, thank Mars! I thought we were lost in another dimension!" She felt Robin's body stiffen up and broke the hug, to find Robin looking at something behind her.

"Red Arrow?" Robin asked.

The young hero moved forward.

"You are…"

"Helping. This was… Is and important mission." Red Arrow interrupted him.

"I never said the contrary." Robin heard slight footsteps behind him and turned around to see his team assemble. "I bet it's a delight to be helping Green Arrow with this." He walked towards his team.

"Guys, I want you to meet the Teen Titans." Robin motioned one team to each other.

"Cyborg."

"Raven."

"Starfire."

"Beast boy."

Wally had a confused look on his face and he turned to Robin. "Wait a second here, so you actually have a team under your command?"

"What didn't think I could handle it?" The younger Robin shot a glare to the speedster, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrow.

"You can, trust me" The older Robin reassured.

"Wait.. What happened to the team then?" Superboy spoke up.

Robin hesitated for a moment. "After some time we all kind of "graduated" from our teenage heroes statuses, and went our separate ways. After having a little uh, discussion with the mentor, I went solo, to Jump City. Then one night an alien princess crashed the town." He turned his look at Starfire. She blushed slightly and Robin's mouth turned into a sleek smile.

"That's when I came into scene, then Cyborg and Raven tagged along." Beast boy took off from where the young hero had left his story. "Starfire helped us defeat this huge alien lizards that came to destroy the world and everyone in it. Naturally we saved the day, and since that day, we kinda became a team." He smiled proudly. Raven sighed and looked back at Robin.

"Hold up, wait. You are an alien princess?" Artemis looked at Starfire.

"Royalty, if you will. Let's just say she left her planet for... Personal reasons." Robin finished off. The archer's brows rose up and Starfire smiled.

"Well, I find it uh." M'gann moved forward, struggling to find a correct word. "Endearing, not to be the only green human in here." Beast boy flashed a huge smile in her direction.

"I'm sorry, this is just a bit, hard to digest." Artemis said. "I never actually thought you'd be taking people in as a team. I think that runs in the family?"

Robin laughed heartily at her reference about his mentor. "You'll find it's actually different here."

Cyborg, Superboy and Kaldur started talking among themselves while Artemis spoke to Robin. M'gann, Raven and Starfire did as well, having Wally and Dick pasting themselves into the conversation.

Robin noticed Red Arrow's solemn expression. Walking to him, he placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Something wrong, Speedy?" Red Arrow flinched slightly, and Robin offered a smile. Artemis giggles silently, listening to them talk.

"It's Red Arrow now." He said through clenched teeth.

"Yeah, not really." Robin shook his head softly and Red Arrow moved his gaze to him.

"What do you mean: Not really?"

Robin looked at his team, then back at the archer. "You don't think this is the only team, right? We're central, but I managed to control a global super hero network, and you're still in it."

Red Arrow's eyes widened. It was like knowing his future before time.

"Titans East, it's a good team, and you're a great Titan." Robin said before any words escaped the young hero's lips. "Don't worry though, we have nothing to do with the league. If anything, just protection in certain limits." Red Arrow sighed relieved at this, but kept his solemn expression.

"A 100% independent superhero global network ran by teenagers. And you want me to believe that you thought this up all by yourself?" Red Arrow said sarcastically.

"It was a need. The Brotherhood of Evil had started to target each one of us, so we took the job of splitting up and pin pointing every single hero that we had found in different missions, and keep contact with them if anything were to happen." Robin said.

"Well it seems like you are holding up everything together well, kid." Red Arrow said.

"Kid? We're probably the same age right now." Robin joked. "Yeah it hasn't been easy, we've all had our dark times."

"Try me" Red arrow crossed his arms and waited to hear some more about the Titans.

Robin turned around, scanning the room full of heroes talking amongst themselves.

"Beast boy right there, the green one." He pointed to him. "He was part of the doom patrol, we had the honor of working with them last year in a mission. It got pretty hard on him somehow, especially after he mutated into a changeling."

"I see." Red Arrow commented.

"Cyborg over there, got re constructed by his father after an accident. When we met, he was covered in clothes, but he has grown a lot. Its something you have to live with after all." Robin said.

"Tough" Red Arrow said.

"Star is from a different planet, she's still getting accustomed to human behaviour. She was taken away from her family when she was very young, and held captive by another alien race." Robin said. "Definitely don't mess with her when she's mad."

"Wasn't planning to" Red Arrow said. "What about the purple hood?"

"Raven. Half demon, we have literally gone through hell and back to save her from her father. That's a long story." Robin said.

"I'm sure we can get some coffee and talk about it sometime, Dick." Red Arrow teased the older hero.

"Hey, you just got here, don't push my buttons Speedy." He said punching his arm.

Kaldur walked to the two heroes who were talking moments ago.

"So, I guess you don't know how we might be going back any time soon, right?" He said. His team fell silent, and the smiles were erased from their faces.

"Oh God! Batman probably thinks we're kidnapped!" Robin said, fear in his voice.

"The Bio-Ship only has minutes of camouflage left..." M'gann recalled out loud.

"And to top it all, that crazed clock work psycho is still out there." Superboy said sternly.

"Crazed clock work psycho?" Beast boy asked. "That sounds familiar."

"Warp?" Raven connected the dots. "Well it seems like he can actually travel back in time, who knew." She said gloomily.

Older Robin bit the inside of his cheeks nervously. "Cyborg, anything we can do?"

The metallic man looked at his arm, glowing blue, as a pile of mathematical expressions and graphs danced over the holographic pad.

"Using Starfire's starbolts and with a portal that can be built we can get them back to their own time. The dark side is, I'll need a couple of weeks to finish it off, not to mention, trying not to drain all of her powers with a single transfusion.

Robin turned to Starfire, who was at M'gann's side, then back at Cyborg questioningly.

"We'll have to see how much Starbolt energy we can get without draining Star." Cyborg looked at the screen built in his arm, answering Robin's doubt.

Robin stood deep in thought for a moment then he spoke. "All right, while we're at it, Beast boy, take the team to the guest room, I'll have to talk to all of you."

The shape shifter nodded quickly and led the team down the principal hall. When they disappeared, Cyborg turned to Robin.

"Now THIS is trouble." He said pointing at where the team had stood moments ago.

"How are we going to keep them in here safe with Slade on the run?" Raven said darkly under her hood.

"Are you kidding?!" Beast boy reappeared again from behind Robin's back. "Those guys could totally help us out! I mean, that Superboy dude could kill anyone with a single punch!" He smiled excitedly, trotting down the stairs to where Robin stood. "And that green chick! I bet she has kick ass superpowers!"

"It doesn't work like that Beast boy. If anyone else sees that team is where they're not supposed to, I'm sure the league will find out somehow." Robin turned to the green titan and he sighed. "They need to lay low."

"So we will let them live here for maybe two weeks, without being able to contribute?" Starfire chimed. "What if someone finds out?"

"It's our job to make this stay between us. We're lucky that the people at the park didn't spot them as something serious, but we can't risk it again. It might be dangerous." Robin said.

"As if there weren't enough people in this tower already…" Raven said sarcastically, sitting down and crossing her legs politely. "I'm glad they are former colleagues Robin, at least we know we can trust them."

Robin sighed. "Cyborg and Starfire, you should start working on the portal."

The two titans nodded in agreement and left the room.

"As for you two..."

"Here it comes..." Beastboy rolled his eyes and turned into a chicken.

"What? I just want you to meet the team a little fonder, it would help a lot to get more information."

"But, this was your team." Raven said.

"It was, but we still kept secrets we wouldn't tell each other. It was all different than now." He explained. "We were all taught different things from different mentors after all."

The green chicken and Raven exchanged glances. The shape shifter turned into himself and stood up shrugging.

"I'd be more than glad, to get to meet Miss Martian a little bit fonder." He walked into the hall humming happily. Robin rolled his eyes as Raven stood up, putting her hood over her head.

"off course he would." She commented.

Robin turned his head. "Is that jealousy I sense?" he said tauntingly.

"Be quiet, Mr.-I'll-Kill-Whoever-Tries-To-Marry-Starfire." Her voice held no emotion, but she still got her point through.

Robin rubbed his chest, as if hurt. "Touché." He said with a slight smile. Black energy surrounded Raven, as she disappeared into the floor.

Finding himself alone, he decided to check on his teams older files, which would take some hours of hacking into the League's data base, just like the old times.

Smiling to himself he turned around, walking to his room.

"Time to 'hack the sensors'" He said while smiling to himself.


	3. Chapter 3

Another day, another chapter.

Isn't that how it goes?

This story is definitely taking shape very very soon don't you worry.

Don't forget to R&R it is deeply appreciated.

* * *

After Robin had made proper research about his former team and made Raven and Beast boy grow a deeper relationship with each, he decided to check on Starfire and Cyborg. As he walked through the hall he thought how was Starfire reacting to the process. His last concern was draining her out. You'd be surprise how much power her race had within each of them, it was truly something else.

Entering the sick bay he found Starfire standing on the corner looking menacingly at Cyborg, who held a pointy needle in his arms.

"Come on Star! I won't hurt you, this is totally normal." He said walking closer to the troubled alien.

"WHAT?! How can it be normal to insert a needle on someones limbs! That's.. That's un-human! And it's coming from an alien!" She glued her back to the wall.

Robin walked towards her and clearing his throat, signaled her to sit down on the bed. Pouting, she did while Cyborg sighed heavily and took a seat, knowing this could take a while.

After Cyborg took Starfire's sample of power, which took about 4 tries, but still the alien didn't even flinch when the needle was inserted, he tapped random buttons on the computer trying to get a preview of what might the portal look like, and what materials he needed. Starfire sat down on her bed, pushing a piece of cotton over the spot where the needle had gone in. Robin walked over to Cyborg.

"So?"

Cyborg sighed. "Yeah, 2 weeks atleast." Biting his lips he turned to his leader. "Maybe more..."

Robin narrowed his eyes, deep in thought.

"Well, maybe they CAN help." Starfire spoke up, making Robin and Cyborg turn their attention to her.

"What do you mean?" Cyborg said.

"We have about 7 heroes here that have been trained by the league of justice. I suppose, they might as well be of some assistance?" Her innocence showed, and Cyborg nodded slowly.

"It makes sense after all Rob-erto."

"I don't know if we can afford having their help." Robin crossed his arms over his chest. "If any citizen sees this other team then everyone will find out. The news, magazines, tabloids. The league might find out. Plus, we can't just tell them the truth."

Cyborg and Starfire exchanged glances and their eyes fell to the floor.

"Just if we need urgent help. Just in that case." He hoped to cheer them up, maybe just a little. "And I am really hoping we don't."

"I am sorry to break your bubble." Cyborg said. "But with Slade out there again, that is a very possible thing to happen."

"Not if I can help it." Robin said.

The metal door slided open and Beast boy came inside. A goofy smile plastered on his face. "DUDE! M'gann is the perfect lady for someone like me."

Robin rolled his eyes. He knew something like this would happen.

"Aw c'mon grass stain you're just saying that because she's green!" Cyborg said looking down at Beast boy. "You might as well say the same thing about a veggie salad."

"So? It's good not to be the only green body around at times.." He sat on the chair, making it spin. "And veggie salads ARE actually perfect for me, thank you very much."

"Don't get your hopes up." Robin smirked when the green teenager stopped twirling.

"Wha?" Beast boy's smiles faded

"I might have this wrong, depending on what exactly had happened when they got here but, she kind of has a thing with Superboy. Just saying." He shrugged. Every titan gave a sympathetic look at Beast boy and smiled innocently.

"AW MAN! Not fair!" Beast boy fell to the floor, as if he had melted. "Man you're such a mood killer, especially now that you know the past, AND part of the future."

"Robin walked up to him and looked down at the green titan. "Just looking out for ya."

Starfire let out a giggle and the metal door opened silently revealing the dark empath.

"Where were you? We left the team about 15 minutes ago" Beast boy stood up from the floor, plopping down on the bed where Starfire sat, feet dangling over the edge.

"No. You left the team 15 minutes ago." Raven walked in and pulled down her hood. "I stayed a bit longer. It's much easier to have an adult conversation when you're not around hitting on M'gann."

She put her gaze on Robin. "Quite a team you had before, huh?"

Robin smiled looking at the floor, then back at Raven. "We definitely were something." He said proudly. "What did they tell you?"

"Oh, you should know already." She said in quite a different tone than her normal one, almost as if laughing at him. Raven leaned against the metallic wall, watching everyone's quizzical faces. "I can't figure you out though, you don't seem the 'mentor type'."

"Well, we all had to learn and look up to someone right? I didn't get to choose." Robin said.

"What happened then?"

"I grew up." Robin left Beast boy's side and sat down on a nearby chair. "I developed my own ideals, my own way of doing things. It was just time to leave the nest."

Beast boy held back a laugh.

"No pun intended." Robin looked at him.

"They'd really help us out, you know?"Raven said crossing her arms across her chest, waiting for an answer from their leader.

Starfire and Cyborg exchanged looks and then looked at Robin with expectation.

Robin pursed his lips into a straight line. Feeling their gaze on him like daggers.

"I'll think about it."

From beside Raven, the metallic door slipped open, and then Wally poked his head inside with a innocent smile.

"Ello." He said with a fake english accent. Cyborg snorted and Robin rolled his eyes.

"Where's the rest of your team?" Robin said.

Wally's figure emerged completely from the wall and he straightened up.

"Kaldur is still talking to them. You don't see a future team mate, literally, every day, do you?" Wally said.

"Actually, you do." Raven said.

"Nevermind, wrong wording. This is still so weird to us you know."

"I understand Wally. I was planning on letting you guys stay here while the portal's being made so that you can lay low." Robin said

"Lay low?" Wally said, eyebrow knitted together in confusion. "You really want the team to lay low."

Robin raised an eyebrow, questioning the speedster.

"Our future selves are probably out there doing awesome things, and you want us to lay low?" Wally said.

"I get what you're saying." Robin followed his thoughts. "But we lost contact years ago Kid. Some of us stayed together, like you and Speedy, but then Artemis, M'gann, Superboy..."

"You don't know where they are?"

Robin sighed. "Not a clue."

Wally stayed silent for a moment. "Well, that was something I didn't expect."

"I'm still breaking the rules by telling the future." Robin stood up walking to him.

"Are you kidding? Breaking the rules if your favorite Mr. Hacker." He said testing him.

"Reaaaaaally now?" Cyborg said, interested in the subject. "Well isn't that a surprise, Robbie poo?"

The screen that remained silent with the Titan's symbol lighted up with white letters indicating the time. Underneath the word 'Training' was written.

"Saved by the bell" Robin whispered.

"Wally, why don't you call your team and tell them to meet us in the training room?" Wally nodded and sped off quickly.

Robin turned around to his team looking at him, curiousness in their eyes.

"We have a conversation pending, young man." He said. While he stood up and walked past him.

"I'll make sure to save some time for that." Robin said.


	4. Chapter 4

Do any of you guys have ANY idea, why fanfiction will sometimes won' . ?!

LITERALLY.

IT TURNS BLANK, NO PAGE AT ALL.

Thankfully changing browsers fixed it this time, but if I fail to upload as often as I am now, you guys know why.

I'm happy that the story is getting noticed and gaining its followers :) I am super proud of the time I've invested on it so this will definitely be perfect.

Don't forget to R&R and thank you for reading guys! :D

* * *

"Do you have any idea what he's planning?"

"No."

"What if it's an evil plot!"

"It's not."

"Maybe Robin after all is just an evil robot!"

"He's not, just some years older. We would have noticed something"

"Yeah, but still, it's -"

"CAN IT, WALLAS!" Artemis exploded as the team walked through the halls, heading for the training room. Wally had discussed with Aqualad about how suspicious Robin was. The whole situation about him 'leaving the nest' made him wonder what kind of thing happened between him and Bruce. he never actually thought he would want to go solo. Since no one else believed him, not even Robin in his younger self, he tried convincing them, failing miserably.

"Okay fine. But if he kills us." He sped to the archer's side tugging her ponytail and narrowing his eyes at her. "You'll go down first."

"Here we are" Kaldur lead the team to a stop, standing in front of a large metallic door. No one said a word until it opened with a swoosh, revealing the Teen Titans, lined up, as if waiting for them. The training room was full of obstacle circuits, acrobat bars and gym machinery. The ceiling was very high, leaving space for anyone, or anything to fly inside with no problem. The younger Robin whistled under his breath.

"Fancy" He muttered looking around, arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Guys! Glad you could join us." The Titan leader smiled happily.

"Our pleasure." Kaldur said, scanning the equipped room as well.

"Since you and your team will be staying for at least 2 weeks, you'll have to stay in shape. An emergency might show up any time, and _we_ must be ready if anything happens" He stopped for a moment. "And we're really hoping nothing does."

Kaldur smirked at the word 'we' and took a step forward. "Well, you're the leader here."

"Super powered heroes, left. The remaining stay to the right." Robin said without his eyes leaving Kaldur's. The titan's obeyed, and so did the visitors. "No super powers." He said, as Starfire and Raven hovered near the ground. They fell to the floor and walked to the left side.

Starfire, Beast boy, Raven, Superboy, M'gann, and Wally formed a group in one side of the room.

Artemis, Red Arrow, Robin and Cyborg moved to the opposite side.

"Count down ready." Robin said, walking over to the right side. Aqualad went the opposite.

"Ready and going." Cyborg said, as the beeping noise of a chronometre started booming.

"The goal is to have your opponent fall." Robin said.

10

"They'll fall alright." Wally whispered under his breath, adjusting his googles.

Kaldur got into position.

8

Each team got to their fighting stances, getting redy. Eyes narrowed, teeth clinched and growls were produced, as the intensity begun to rise upon the heroes.

5

"The key for that is for your opponent not to know you're going at them, until you do" Robin remarked.

4

"Which means this is an everyone against everyone" His younger self said.

3

"We really are the same person" Robin smirked.

2

1..

The two teams collided with war cries, and begun tackling each other. Superboy got to Aqualad trying to kick his stomach. The atlantian swiftly moved, dodging every attack. When Super boy tried to high kick, Aqualad curled up on the floor and crossed his legs with Superboy's, making him loose his balance and fall with a 'thump'. He growled as Aqualad stood up, grinning.

"You'll pay." Conner said playfully, but in a serious voice.

Starfire, meanwhile avoided Artemis attacks. Artemis thought she had her, when her foot connected to her stomach, the princess back flipped and landed safely on the floor, crouching. A playful smile playing on her lips. Artemis narrowed her eyes and stepped closer, ready to attack. She tried kicking, but the alien was too fast. One moment when she lost concentration, she managed her knee to collide with her hipbone, sending her to the ground. Starfire grunted as Artemis towered over her. Starfire looked around, and swiftly went across Artemis gap in between her open legs, sliding through the floor. Artemis felt a gravity pull, falling to the floor, she found herself being towered by the young hero. Once again she smiled. This might be the beggining of a wonderful friendship.

Titan Robin tried firing a kick to Miss Martian. He failed, as she swiftly moved to his side, avoiding any contact. Her face was covered by her fists. Raising he right leg in a fast motion, she kicked Robin's arm to his side, before she could land again, she felt gravity pull her down and then she found herself sitting on the floor. She looked up to see Robin smiling down at her triumphantly.

"I've learned a lot."

"Noticed that." M'gann said. She ducked her head when she saw a green ball speeding at her, it passed over her crouched body and into a nearby wall. The speeding blur of green unfolded to Beast boy lying on the ground, spirals of dizzines could be almost seen in his eyes. M'gann and Robin turned to look who it was, and they saw the younger Robin, brushing his fingers through his jet black hair with a smile on his face, when he noticed the looks.

"What?" He said. " You should be thankful it wasn't Super boy who did that instead of me." He said in a kiddish tone shrugging.

Right behind him, Raven and Artemis fought.

From a moment to another, the room lighted up in blaring red lights and an ear piercing alarm that brought all the titan's attention. Kid Flash brough his hands to his ears, guarding them from the piercing loud noise.

"Trouble." Robin grumbled and sped out of the training room into the common room, with the two teams following him.

"Aw man, this was just starting to get interesting" Beast boy said as he sped with the rest of them.

"Says the guy that fell to the ground on his butt" Raven remarked. Beast boy narrowed his eyes at the dark girl, and turned into a dog, running past everyone.

The gigantic screen in the common room produced a city map with blinking red dots signaling where the trouble was. In the right top corner, a red dot increased and decreased in size.

"Museum robbery." Cyborg got to the front of the screen, tapping numbers madly on the keyboard.

"Who is it?" Robin ran to his side immediately. The other teams stood on the outskirts of everything.

"X" Cyborg said. The room fell in tense silence, Robin's eyes narrowed.

The outsiders stared at each other, waiting for an answer to whom they were speaking of.

Who the hell is X?

"Let's move." Robin said, heading for the garage.

"If we need any backup we'll communicate with you, for now stay put!" Robin said before the door shut behind him and his teammates.

The team stood there, some shocked at the sudden adrenaline rush that a simple museum robbery seem to cause, and some others kept their cool. Some others, meant Robin.

"So, I'm actually a great leader. Che, I knew it." He walked to the couch and his cape fluttered behind him. He plopped down and rested his legs on a nearby bean bag

Aqualad and Artemis exchanged glances and shook their heads.

"I can smell your ego all the way from here." Artemis said, walking to him and kicking down his legs for her to go through. "You know humility goes a looong way."

Wally laughed loudly and then his tone turned serious.

"Guys. Haven't you noticed something?" He said suddenly excited.

The team looked at each other and shrugged.

"We're in the future?" Superboy suggested.

"That and -"

"Robin is a team leader and mature enough to take charge?" Artemis interrupted Wally.

"HEY!" Robin hollered from his seat.

"Well, yes.. But, we are alone.. In the tower.. We just met Robin's future team I mean, we might as well do some research, right? Just to prove he isn't an evil robot that is trying to kill us"

Aqualad thought about this.

"Wouldn't that be considered privacy violation?" M'gann said.

"Well, not if boy wonder helps us, it's HIS team's information." Wally rose his brows and looked at Robin, who rubbed his chin, with a mischievous look upon his face.

"Well, we already KNOW Robin isn't an evil robot that is plotting our deaths." Kaldur said, shooting a glare to Wally.

"Doesn't sound like a good idea to me." Red Arrow said seriously. "We are in a different time, just try not to mess up anything." He said it to stop the idea to sounding to attractive, since the things Robin had told him about his team we're pretty intimate. He surely wouldn't like anyone being nosey about his life at least.

"Red Arrow's right, just drop it." Aqualad said.

"Fine. If we get caught, you can blame Robin." Wally said defending himself.

"Dude!" Robin stood up from the sofa, facing Wally.

"And me, Robin and me. Please?" Wally tried his best at convincing the leader.

"Your choice." Aqualad said seriously, narrowing his eyes.

Wally pumped his fist and zapped to the computer keyboard, while the rest of the team sat around the couch.

"Would you mind?" Wally said, pointing at the keyboard and eyeing Robin.

Robin smiled, and started tapping madly on the buttons. After some minutes, the Titans Database opened up, with a drop down list of all the titans world wide.

"Impressive." Wally said scanning the gigantic screen with his eyes.

"Look there they are!" Robin pointed at a certain spot. When clicked, 5 pictures of the heroes stood, their names under them.

"Let's see.. Who will be first?" Wally closed his eyes, counting the pictures as he hummed Eenie Meenie to choose. Robin rolled his eyes.

"You can't be serious."

"Aha!" Wally un cupped his hand over his eyes, and his finger pointed at Beast boy's face.

"Green dude goes first." Wally pressed a button and a bunch of information typed itself on the screen.

"Name: Beast boy." Wally started.

"Not surprised." Artemis commented.

"Powers: shifting to any possible animal or beast."

"We noticed that." Superboy spoke up.

"What's this?" He hovered over some blue spot on the screen. Robin leaned over in surprise.

"A secret link! Get off." He pushed Wally off the chair, making him land on the floor.

"Dude! What the heck!"

"Don't you get it? It's a secret link as in, secret information. This is only background info, here, we can find about their pasts, their weaknesses, everything."

Red Arrow's head rose at this, his eyes alert.

"I don't think it's..."

Before he could finish he got interrupted by Wally.

"Might as well get to know them." Wally moved to the chair, kicking Robin off and clicking, more information popped out.

Red Arrow let the speedster alone, and croseed his arms across his chest, keeping his eyes fixed on the screen.

"Some mutation made him green, he was part of the Doom Patrol and he's a vegetarian. His intelligence is 50% more developed than a human's thanks to his animal senses." Wally said squinting his eyes through the letters.

"Whoa, what? 50% more developed?" Super boy said surprised.

"Well, he does cover that up, a lot, and really good." Wally commented.

"Mutation? That sounds painful" M'gann commented.

"It probably was, they say the happiest people are the ones who have suffered the most." Superboy said.

The whole team stared at him.

"Well…" Superboy scratched his neck nervously "I read it in a book once ok?"

"Whatever just move to the next one." Robin said.

"It's the metallic dude." Superboy said as Cyborg's face appeared on the screen.

"Former football star, he had an accident during his young years, and his dad reconstructed him, or tried at least, using the technology in Star labs. He functions almost as a human, his strength obviously more developed than ours." Wally read.

The room fell silent. For the first time they've heard about someone who decided for this life. Who after all that suffering, got himself together, and kept going. They were all astounded to say the least.

"That's awesome, man." Wally said.

"Sounds like a true hero." Aqualad answered.

"The guy's brave." Red Arrow said, looking up.

"Move on." Artemis spoke. All of them were fascinated in how each one of these people got to be who they are today.

Next, a pair of dark grey eyes, purple hair and grey skin showed up.

"Raven." Wally read.

"Azarathian. Her powers are controlled by the organization of emotional schemes. Powers include flying and telekinesis. Sounds familiar." Wally turned to look at M'gann. She kept looking up at Raven in awe. Maybe.. She wasn't that different.

"Her dad attacked earth last year, bringing the apocalypse a little bit earlier." Wally said.

"So basically, she's half demon?" Artemis asked, inspecting the screen.

"Aren't all girls?" He said sarcastically, making Artemis roll her eyes. "She does have good control of her stuff I must say, I am pretty impressed."

"Knock it off, Wally." Artemis hissed at him as he chuckled silently.

Wally found himself staring at a pair of green eyes as he went lower down the screen.

"Princess." Artemis said under her breath.

"Her name is Starfire. Real name is Koriand'r, that means warrior of the stars. Tamaranian royalty, and descendant from a goddes called X'Hal." Wally read.

"She sure is a goddess herself." Robin whispered. M'gann shot him a look, and he blushed.

"Well look at you." Artemis teased. "You sure are happy to know who you're going to be around with in the future."

"Her emotions boost her powers which is basically energy made a starbolt, result from early experimentation done in her planet. Her innocence shows up at times, but her strength is about 200 levels above human's." Wally crossed his arms and leaned back on the chair, swirling to look at Superboy.

"Sounds like a good friend huh?"

Superboy narrowed his eyes in a threat, and Wally turned around. "Shutting up."

"So, we have a demoness, a changeling, an alien, and a cyborg." Red Arrow said moving nearer to the screen. "And a human." He glanced at Robin.

"Dude, I think we'll leave your file alone. You know, privacy and stuff" Wally said to Robin. "I think you've known enough about your future for a day."

"I appreciate that, Kid." Robin said bumping his arm with his fist.

"Unique team if you ask me." Superboy added.

"Guys." Robin's voice boomed from an intercom around the tower suddenly

"WAAAH!" Wally fell to the floor when he heard Robin's voice. Then he looked up from the floor to see him on the screen.

"Oh, it's only you." He turned his back to the screen. Robin frowned.

"We need backup. Get here as fast as you can, I'll send in coordinates." Robin's face shrinked as the map re appeared.

"We're on our way." Aqualad said. Robin's face disappeared, and before they knew it, they were on their way to help the Titans, in an unknown city, several years into the future. What could go wrong right?

* * *

Spoiler Alert: A lot of things

A lot of things could go wrong.

Take this as foreshadowing about the shit storm that's to come.


	5. Chapter 5

I feel like this is the part where the plot ACTUALLY begins.

btw I rated this M because there's gonna be a lot of swearing in the future along with torture/violence and possible sex themed parts. Just in case this is triggering for anyone out there, quiiiick heads up.

If you ask why would there be torture, well I just like having my favs suffer for a bit before a happy ending, yay:)

Keep on reading, and don't forget to R and R

* * *

"Here?"

"Uh...that's what the coordinates said." M'gann landed next to Kid Flash, Superboy close behind.

"Wasn't it a museum robbery or something?" He said. The clone looked at M'gann raising his brow.

"Maybe the criminal lead them here." She said unsure.

"OR." Kid Flash raised a finger suspiciously as he got close to them. "Maybe it's a trap."

"Either way, let's keep our entrance unnoticed. We're here to help, not the make the situation worse." Aqualad said eyeing the structure in question.

A tall abandoned building stood in front of them, with broken windows and papers half ripped glued to them. The gates were closed and secured with a gigantic padlock. The building was about 50 stories high. A soft whistle was heard from behind, caused by the wind. It was noticeable how it was meant to be for offices. It extended to the back, making it both tall, and wide, and its inner structure seemed to have only a few floor divisions made. no lighting was in it, just the moon shining from above.

"Not suspicious. At all." Robin said. Artemis, Aqualad and Red Arrow stepped at the front, waiting for orders.

"M'gann, I need you to find out their exact location. We'll stick together, get inside and perform a surprise attack." Equaled commanded.

As Superboy walked forward to break the padlock a hand stopped him.

"Wait!" Superboy looked up at Red Arrow, who blocked the way.

"Do we even know who this criminal is?" Before anyone could answer, an explosion boomed through everyone's ears. They turned around in time to see a cloud, tinted with red from the fire, forming around the structure, surprisingly, not bringing it down. Still, a part of the first floor was burning up slowly, eating the material that the building was made of.

"Don't think it matters right now!" Superboy broke the padlock and ran forward, the whole team following. Red Arrow readied his bow and held it tight against his palms, ready for the fight.

As the heroes reached the place where mayhem had taken apart half of the first level, they saw nothing. No fight, no robots, especially no titans.

"Where are..."

"LOOK OUT!" The whole team ducked and fell to the floor, avoiding a hot wave of fire to blast through them. When they opened their eyes, they saw Starfire, blasting a robot apart. She unscrewed its head, and then ripped apart its limbs, disconnecting any power left in him. After that, a pile of mechanics rested on the floor.

"Remind me never to mess with her." Wally whispered to Artemis, who looked forward, with wide eyes.

Starfire's eyes reached the team and her glowing orbs dimmed a bit, returning her normal gaze. The energy balls around her palms turned off as well, and she straightened up as best as she could. Her upper lip was broken, and a nasty gash crossed her stomach, still she did some effort to walk closer to them.

"It is pleasant to see you here." She said in a low voice, looking upward to see the hole that she made when she fell to the first floor.

"Right in time, I suppose." Aqualad lowered his attack stance and walked forward to the princess. She looked at the dark skinned worried face as he held her arm before she had a chance to collapse.

"What happened?!" Kid Flash asked alarmed

"They're in the 13th floor." She said. "Let's be fast, we need help." Before Aqualad said anything else Starfire flew into the building slowly, trying not to cause any more damage to herself. The team started following her and Wally stayed behind a few steps. Robin joined him in silence.

"What you waiting for?" Robin eyed the speedster.

"Did you see her?" Wally said, catching up with the rest of the team "What kind of criminal that robs a bank would end up doing something like this."

Robin sighed, slipping a bird a rang out of his utility belt. "That's what we're going to find out."

Wally cleared his throat, unsure, and kept walking. Maybe all of these silent months in Happy Harbor were really the silence before the storm.

They found their way to the thirteenth floor easily since the second floor had no floor at all, because of the explosion, M'gann helped them up, and hey decided to use the stairs, since the elevators were out of the question. Sometimes the floors had divisions, sometimes they didn't, it was obvious that the building had been abandoned for a long time now, but most of its structure was still being held up. The heat slapped the trespassers on their faces painfully as they went further into the building. Walking through offices where flames we're dancing inoffensively, Aqualad took lead and caught up with Starfire.

"Who is this X?" He asked. He noticed how Starfire lowered her gaze to the floor, her hair falling on her face, covering part of it. She stopped hovering and stumbled for a moment, regaining her balance.

"We do not know. But he has been a serious problem in this city, for so much time." She said coldly as she started walking. The sweetness in her voice was long gone, now it was full of pain. "He did not do this, surprisingly."

"Who did this then?" When Aqualad said this everyone stopped dead on their tracks. His voice boomed out of his throat louder than what he'd expected them to come. Desperate for an answer, when Starfire kept her gaze on the floor he put a hand on her shoulder.

Starfire sighed inwardly and looked at him once again, her voice as low as possible. "Slade."

A hole was created on top of her head, sending Beast boy to the lower floor on top of Starfire. Aqualad quickly grabbed M'gann, who was standing right beside him and pushed her away from the falling debris, the rest of the team guarded their faces from it as well. They opened their eyes to see Beast boy helping Starfire up, and he didn't look any better. Kid Flash walked up to him and put the changelings arm around his shoulders for support.

"Dude!" Wally looked astonished at the green teenager.

"I'm fine. It seems like he has some friends." Beast boy ignored his pain, holding on to Wally.

"You are not okay, Beast boy. You're covered in blood." M'gann said worried.

"I will be fine, don't worry." He sighed, finding he had difficulty breathing."You guys ready?" He looked at the team in front of him, in their fighting stances, with eyes full of compressed rage and anger.

"We Are." Kaldur answered for all of them.

* * *

Robin used his Bo staff to impulse his jump to Red X. He sprang to his direction, planting a kick on his chest. Red X lost his balance, but didn't let unconsciousness black him out. He took Robin's ankle and changed it's position, sending him to the ground. He opened his eyes just to see Red X's foot over him, and then a black and red blur cleared it from his vision field. Confused but grateful, Robin stood up to see Superboy literally punching the life out of him, a small smile appeared on his face, making it wider when he turned around and saw the rest of the team kicking Sladebots and helping the injured titans.

But then he felt pain shot through his back and he found himself on the floor once again.

Pain was sent through his veins and up his spine as he struggled to stand up. Opening his heavy eyelids he saw a too familiar mask looking down at him, as the room fell silent. Robin felt for his lips, and saw his glove stained with blood. He felt something take over his mind, as he turned his head to see his friends being held by sladebots by their necks and arms, unable to move, and Starfire by X. The other team was no where to be seen.

 _Where are they? They were here just seconds ago…_

He grunted as he tried to stand up, but Slade dived his foot in deeper into his back, signaling how much of a bad idea that was. But why was he so weak? It was just a kick.

Sade's low chuckle filled the room, making the hair of his neck stand up. He took hold of his cape, and forced him to stand up. His neck screamed in agony as the villain squeezed it, and then he felt a cold surface collapse with his skin.

It was a knife.

Robin could hear his own heart, pounding hardly in his chest. He could hear his team resisting their breathing, could almost sense all of the feelings mixed in the air, and he hated it. Opening his eyes, he still couldn't see any other team member.

"Now, let's see what we can get from you kids." Slade kicked Robin to his knees and moved to the circle of captured titans being held by sladebots. Robin kneeled on the ground, helpless and useless, trying to focus on what was happening, and sending orders to his non respondent arms and legs that should be taking action. It was as if his whole body had been shut down, it was not responding at anything, and for the first time, he had no idea why. He was completely paralyzed.

Slade stopped in front of the cybernetic teenager. Cyborg could almost see a smile under his mask, and an evil laugh could be heard as well.

"Victor." Cyborg trembled at the sound of his name, he kept his face straight. The sladebot increased his hold on him, making him flinch slightly. "Aren't you a special one?" Slade crossed his arms in front of his chest. Cyborg closed his eyes and bowed his head, blocking out his voice and not meeting his eye.

"I understand. You're a Cyborg after all. You're not supposed to have feelings, a machine doesn't..."

Cyborg lunged at the masked villain at full speed with a war cry. Slade didn't even turned around, but Robin saw how electric shocks passed through his body and he fell to the floor, smoke leaving his cybernetic parts. Starfire's eyes widened and she turned her head to avoid the horrible view unfolding in front of her. X grabbed her face and turned her head for her to see, whispering into her ear. Robin cringed at the view. Cyborg's red cybernetic eye quickly blinked and shut down, his body did as well.

Slade walked around, stopping in front of Raven and lowering her hood. Dark violet orbs and a scowl of disgust looked to the floor. A gash spread on her cheek, blood dripping from it. Slade traced a finger on her bloody eyebrow and she shivered from the sudden coldness.

"Demon." Slade said with a scoff. Robin tried to get to his feet, but stumbled to the floor loudly. She kept her face to the floor, trying to control herself. Slade forced her gaze up, by pushing her chin up with a finger.

"It is most amusing, seeing you trying to take control of your destiny, your powers." Slade lowered his voice. "Yourself."

She fought against the sladebot's arms and tried to escape, but was held tight. Narrowing her eyes, she started to chant her mantra in a low voice, almost like a whisper. Slade backed off and Raven fell silent, questioning his moves.

"It won't be that easy." With a swift move he sent a flying gas ball over to where Beast boy stood, being held by the slide bot. His coughs were heard over the smoke and he grabbed his neck for air, before falling unconscious. The sladebot that held Raven made his knee collapse with her back, making a nerve twitch, and making her fall to the floor in pain. Her head hit the floor with a loud thud. As her view began to blur she quickly slipped into darkness. What was it about the sladebots that made them so weak? They had always been so easy to defeat, but now something had changed.

Robin flinched when he hear the sound Raven made with the wooden floor. "Concussion" He thought to himself.

Starfire internally screamed when she met Slade's mask, but didn't let him recognize it. For once, she decided to face him, looking at him directly to his mask. His footsteps were thunder as he came closer, and he felt X's hold on her arm tighten. Robin stopped his struggle for consciousness for a moment, and he heard his heart beat pounding in his ears.

"Princess." Slade bowed in a mocking way and Starfire growled. Looking behind Slade, she caught sight of the other team ready to attack. She kept a serious face, but was relieved nevertheless. Moving forward without being seen, Aqualad helped Robin to his feet. When he tried to run forward to Slade Aqualad stopped him with a pull of his arm.

"We have a plan, do not worry." He said. Robin hesitated, but let him help his weak body to its feet.

A cold hand grabbed Starfire's face and made her look into a black eye with an evil glint in it. He was so close now that his breathing could be heard. She cursed herself when she flinched from the pain, of his cold hand touching her injured skin, her breath was becoming uneven from the blood loss.

"Let me ask you something, Princess" He leaned into her ear, and started whispering, so only she could listen to what he said. "Do your friends know who you really are?" Starfire's eyes opened up a bit, and tears threatened to fall, but she kept her strength, prohibiting herself to have Slade seeing her cry.

Slade moved away from her ear and looked into her eyes again "Do YOU know who you really are?" Her face was kept serious. Robin growled in a whisper, stalking Slade's every move. Rage bubbling up in him. Aqualad noticed this and looked towards the villain. He signaled M'gann and Superboy to be ready for attack. Nodding, they got into their fighting stances.

Slade tilted his head to the side and walked closer to her, until he was just a footstep away from her. She loosened up in Red X's grip, feeling unconsciousness draw closer, but fighting for her strength to last a little bit longer, and just waited for the right time. From one moment to another Slade rushed and grabbed her arm tightly looking straight into her eyes. Planting a fist into her gashed stomach, he gained a cry of pain from her. Her vision blurred and she felt herself slipping.

"NOW!" As soon as Aqualad gave his orders M'gann cloaked herself in invisibility and flew to where Red X was standing. He crouched to the floor in pain, dropping Starfire immediately giving her the chance to crawl away from him in pain. He looked around to find his attacker that was nowhere to be seen. Superboy let out a war cry and lunged himself to Slade. He punched his mask, breaking it in half, and then stopped. Inside of it, broken circuits spazzed and chirped; revealing bundled up machinery inside "Slade's" head that was now damaged. The bot repeated those last words and then fell to the floor, with one last shock.

Superboy's fists loosened and he tried to calm down. Right in front of him M'gann towered over Red X, effectively unconscious. He turned to see Robin helping Starfire and Artemis and Red Arrow talking to Aqualad, who supported Raven not from falling down. Wally helped Cyborg and Beastboy up, supporting them. Robin was just there, watching everything happen, his eyes laid on the bot.

Superboy came closer to him, but Robin's eyes never met his.

"It was all a trap." He said simply. Superboy's mouth turned into a thin line and said nothing. Then as he wanted to speak Wally came behind them.

"And I thought I knew crazy villains." He said rubbing his bleeding arm.

"What exactly did you expect?" Superboy said.

"At least his own presence. If that was only a robot, would you imagine what he could really do?"

"Guys." Robin's stern voice came from behind. He supported Starfire so that she wouldn't fall down. His masks corners were ripped and his lip broken. He did his best to stand still and straightened up. "Thank you."

Wally smiled. "No problem dude."

"We should get you back to the tower, you need some rest." Superboy told Robin. Robin looked around. His teammates were gathering around them. There were injuries, but over all they would survive. He couldn't stand seeing any of his friends like this.

"I'll be fine. I'm more worried about what those bots had within them." Robin stated looking at the mess of metal and scrap that littered the room. The younger Robin picked up a tiny chip to his eye level.

"Very advanced operating system. It increased their strength levels, almost like fighting with yourself, except your opponent being 50 times stronger." He said inspecting it.

"That explains a lot." Beast boy said.

"Nice job." Robin pat his younger self on the back. "We'll research it further in the tower, after some needed healing."

The two teams made their way out of the building, and flew, sped and drove to the tower. Robin wandered the whole way about this 'villain' and how he would have to fight with him in a future. After seeing the older Robin getting beat up and thrown around, he felt a pang of pain knowing that, that was him. And he didn't do anything. Not that he could, the Batman had always taught him not to attack without knowing a villain's goals, and definitely not to miss with villain's from other unknown places. Was all that schooling forgotten? The only thing he did know, is that he needed a conversation with him, urgently.

* * *

We shall see what slide is planning, in the next chapter.

Thank you for reading and reviewing!


	6. Chapter 6

Welp.

Updating twice a week is getting a bit harder but Imma still do it.

Enjoy the next chapter!

* * *

Once Cyborg was hooked up to a big flat screen computer, and Raven and Beastboy layed down on two separate hospital beds, with Raven levitating on a low level, the other team arranged in the hospital wing's seats. Wally's bleeding arm was treated inmediately and he slouched on a chair, looking for some rest. Since Raven was busy healing herself, Robin had to treat Starfire's gash carefully. Thank God he had taken those first aid classes as a kid, he never knew they'd acutally come in handy. When her stomach was wrapped up in bandages and her lip stopped bleeding he sat beside her on the hospital bed.

He looked at Aqualad and sighed.

"It's a good thing you're all okay." Aqualad broke the silence. Robin's masked eyes looked around the room, with every team member looking at him.

"You must be used to this after all." Wally said.

Robin hesitated for a moment, and Red Arrow stood up.

"You aren't.. Are you?" He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for a response. Robin gazed for a long time, before answering.

"No." He said darkly.

"It's not all new, it was a familiar attack, however, he definitely has something going on. The team has never resulted as injured, and never with Slade. He's got something planned in hands."

Wally's eyes widened. "You mean this is not.. It?"

The younger Robin stood up and opened his mouth after spending so much time in silence.

"This is just the beggining..right?" He kept contact with himself, looking into his mask. From the corner of his eye, he could see Artemis crossing her arms in confussion. Robin kept his hand interwined with Star's as if for support.

"You said it yourself." The leader said finally.

Raven's monitors started beeping uncontrollably as she fell to the bed with a loud thud. Starfire ran to her side, grunting in pain, and looked at the screen that displayed her heart rate and condition. Worry fell upon her face. Tapping the keyboard nearby, she muttered in tameranian to herself.

"What is it?" Robin asked her, but got a tameranian whisper in response.

"Starfire, what is it?!" He spoke louder this time.

"We're loosing her. She has stopped healing herself and her vital signs are low." Star never turned her head to look at Robin, but rather kept tapping madly and cursing in her native language.

Robin widened his eyes in shock and stared at Raven, who just lied there. Her skin a sick gray, and her lips loosing color.

Aqualad looked at M'gann and she nodded.

"I can help." Her voice piped up from behind Superboy's seat. She floated over to Raven's side and placed her hands on her temples, closing her eyes.

Starfire left the keyboard alone, opening space for her. The beeping was loud and it alarmed her more by every sound. She looked at Robin, and he just nodded, calming her.

After a couple of seconds, Raven's levitation started functioning once again, and M'gann opened her eyes, still glowing blue and her brows knitted together.

"What is it?" Superboy was the only one who actually noticed how worried she was.

"It's almost like if fright radiated from her, like if she knew what was going to happen." Her eyes kept their unnatural glow, and she looked forward all the time. After some seconds she closed them and her pupils appeared once again.

"She might have a clue of something." M'gann said. "About something that happened today, or that might happen in the future."

"That's what caused that? A vision?" Artemis asked.

"I'm still not sure what is was. We'll have to wait until she's conscious and make sure her emotions don't interfere with her powers, or her mind." M'gann said.

Before any other word was spoken, Beast boy shifted his position, and he morphed into a green cat, stretching itself. It rubbed his nose with is paw in the most adorable way, before turning back to normal, legs crossed over the bed. Everyone watched this with wide open eyes.

Beast boy looked at all the eyes set on him, and the only sound heard were Raven's machinery beeps in a rythmic way.

"What?"

"I can't get used to this." Wally raised his palms in defeat.

With the overwhelming day that was for both of the teams, the titans, more specifically, Robin, Starfire and Beastboy, decided it would be better to get some sleep. They hoped the two injured titans left at the infirmary could be recuperated next day, atleast to be able to walk.

There were two guest rooms inside the tower. M'gann and Artemis slept in one of them, that was in one corner of the tower, and the other guest room, that was where the boys slept, was on the corner of the opposite side.

M'gann levitated into the room, while Artemis let hersellf fall on top of the blue colored covers groaning slightly.

M'gann fell to the floor and walked to her own bed, clipping off her cape she lay down.

"Can you believe this?" Artemis said, her voice muffled by the covers.

"Still can't." M'gann was exhausted and her voice was raspy and tired. "It's all so... Different."

"Different?" Artemis rose her head and stood up on the bed. "It's completely different! We're not even in Happy Harbor anymore, Robin is a leader and he has a changeling, a half machine an alien and a demon following him, THIS IS..."

"The future." M'gann cut her of at the middle of her sentence before her voice got any louder. "As much as it seems impossible, it is. Why are you so alarmed anyways?" M'gann shifted her body so that she was looking at Artemis.

Artemis plopped onto the bed, with her legs on either side.

"I don't know, I never saw Robin as the 'leader material'" She made hand signs to draw speech marks and M'gann shrugged.

"He grew up." M'gann said with a sincere smile.

"As if."

"Don't think I didn't catch you staring." M'gann cocked an eyebrow and she raised her head, sitting on the bed indian style.

"Good one M'gann." She said sarcastically. "I think it's pretty clear he has something going on with alien girl."

"Starfire." M'gann corrected. "Well, she seems nice."

"I guess she does, hell of a fighter too." Artemis commented.

M'gann nodded, and after some seconds she chuckled loud enough for Artemis to hear.

"What?" Artemis said.

"Nothing..it's just…"

The metallic doors swishing open interrupted M'gann's talking and Wally came inside waving his hands in the air desperately.

"When are we supposed to go back to our own time?" He crossed his arms, waiting for a response from any of the two girls in the room.

"What is it? Jealous that bird boy got to be a leader and you didn't?" Artemis crossed her arms over her chest.

"That, and the justice league is probably crazy looking for us!" Wally spoke in a low voice, scared that someone might hear.

"Chill out Wally, they've probably found out what has happened by now." Said Artemis. "Wait a minute, you just said you were jea-"

"We need to figure out what's going on here." Aqualad entered the room with a expressionless Superboy, cutting Artemis off

"How are we supposed to? Look at him, he changed!" Superboy said angrily.

"Superboy.." Aqualad started.

"No, he didn't just grew up. He left the team, left the Batman, and do any of us have any idea were we are right now anyway?" By now, each member looked at the clone with wide eyes. Then Superboy noticed, their gaze didn't fall on him, but at something behind. Robin stood there, a blank expression on his face.

Superboy's face softened when he turned around and found Robin, but he kept his eyes narrowed at the younger teen.

"I did?" Robin said. "I wouldn't.."

"No one has clear what you did Robin, and we have no right to judge you." Aqualad looked straight at Superboy, who kept his cool, but burned deep inside.

"Still I'm curious of what happened, maybe I should uh…"

"Have some time with yourself?" Kid Flash cut Robin off. "Literally."

"I was planning on that." Robin said. He cleared his throat. "Yeah some time with myself is much needed"

"I have no problem with that, but it should be tomorrow. I'm sure the Titans are sleeping, and we should be too." Aqualad said heading for the door.

"We'll see you guys tomorrow." He looked back at Artemis and M'gann. The girls nodded as a goodnight salute, as the guys left the room. Once in their room, most of them fell asleep instantly, but Superboy just stared blankly ahead at the ceiling. Flashbacks haunted him, of Superman, of the times spent in Mount Justice. Why would Robin have done that? Now that's a question that wouldn't let him sleep. It was enough having to deal with his mentor's cold shoulder, now this? it was a big mouthful to digest. Added to that, the scene that happened earlier with Slade and the Titans, all that running around and blood and wounds. It tired him mentally. His stomach churned and he turned to lay on his side, facing a wall. Just what was this Slade guy trying to get from all of this? Closing his eyes and shaking this thoughts out of his mind, he sighed and relaxed, as the voices inside of him quieted down and let him drift slowly to sleep.

* * *

I reaaaaally want to get into what each team member might be feeling, although it's sometimes hard to do, like getting in their heads and trying to see what they might be feeling. I am definitely considering re-wathing Young Justice asap.

Remember to R&R, it is much appreciated! :)


	7. Chapter 7

It was about 7 in the morning, and the sun trespassed the windows of the guest room, making the young speedster stir in his sleep. Kid Flash covered his face with his pillow and groaned in annoyance. Then he felt as the warm rays of sunlight covered his entire body that was uncovered. Taking the pillow off his face, he saw the Boy Wonder pulling the curtains string down, making them hover above the sunlight. He grinned mischievously when he saw the look on Wally's face.

"Dude, would you mind…"

"Waking up? You're the only one who's still asleep, Kid." Robin said leaving the string alone and crossing his arms over his chest.

Kid Flash sat on the bed and looked around. Aqualad's, Superboy's and Red Arrow's beds were empty, and of course, Robin's too. He rubbed the tiredness off his eyes, when a soft pillow collapsed with his head, sending him head first to the cold steel floor.

"YO!" Kid Flash said from the floor.

"Better get up and ready." Robin did a flip over the half asleep speedster and got to the other side of the room. "The Titans will be having combat practice soon." With that, Robin slipped out of the room, leaving Kid Flash alone, struggling to get to his feet.

"Combat practice." He said to himself. "Great."

* * *

Cyborg ran through the obstacle course, across giant boulders and flying disks. He swiftly moved from each one of them, making them dust with his sonic canon. As he ran across the finish line with a loud BOOYAH! The titans cheered from the control room, joined by the applauds of the other team. Thankfully the charging process with Cybrg worked fine, and made him wake up stronger than ever, so now, he was destroying everything on his way with a smile on his face.

"Hey Superboy!" Robin called out from inside. "Why don't you try one?"

Superboy felt all eyes on him and smiled sheepishly. "Uh, no thanks?"

"Come on Suppey!" Kid Flash tried to push him into the obstacle course, Robin later accompained him.

"Yeah it's a kids game!" Robin said through grunts, trying to push the heavy teen further and failing.

"I said no, thanks." Superboy said, clearly not amused. From out of nowhere, there was a strong buzzing noise in the air. Standing from his position, Aqualad looked to the distance, divising two helicopters approaching the Titans tower.

"Do you guys have some kind of meeting with the president or something?" Kid Flash called the Titans, who poked their heads out the control room. Robin turned to look at the helicopters and shock splashed his face. "Titans move in!"

The heroes got near where the other team was, obviously giving them a hint of what had to be done.

"Oh, so you don't." Kid Flash commented before being dragged in by Artemis. When all of them were inside, the humongous metallic door closed, and something collapsed onto it, leaving a giant bump and making the teenagers shudder.

"Dude, what the heck is going on?" Beast boy said as he caught his breath once inside the garage.

"Get ready for attack." Robin said as he prepared his bird-a-rangs. Starfire lit up her bolts. Her bandages were still in place from last night, but that did not stop her from getting ready to battle. Cyborg prepared his canon, thirsty for action after his recharge, Raven floated up to the air, and Beastboy turned into a lion. The other team knew what to do this time, luckily. M'gann's eyes shone a dangerous electric blue, Artemis prepared her bows and Red Arrow followed suit ,Superboy got into fighting stance. Kid Flash put on his googles, Aqualad stood still. Concentrated on the door, the younger Robin pulled out his bo-staff.

Two seconds counted the door blasted and left the two teams exposed to a dangerous army of attackers.

"GO!" Robin and Aqualad united their voices and they sprang to action.

The attackers were dressed completely in black, wearing silver utility belts with various weapons. Their faces were covered, with little slits that could let them see through the fabric. They were armed dangerously with heavy guns and lasers, and they had a planned strategy to move throughout the place. No more than 3 seconds had they spent in there and bullets were flying around and bouncing on the walls. A bullet rose Artemis arm, making her skin burn. Hissing in pain, she kept her stand and fired a bow that made at least 10 of them knock out.

Starfire and M'gann took the roof, where they could see every single attack in detail. Firing furiously her starbolts, Starfire left a dozen of them lying on the floor. M'gann pushed all of them to the wall, leaving a pile. No matter how much of them fell, it seemed as more of them came out of nowhere.

The two Robin's took out a group in minutes and decided to help each team together. Robin ran up to Beastboy, who morphed into a lion and took down another large group. This one anyhow, seemed to regain their power, and stood up again as if nothing had happened.

"DUDE!" A bullet crossed Beastboy's leg gap and he shrieked, changing to his human form.

Robin did a flip until he was face to face with the unknown attacker a planted a punch to his face, but instead of seeing him fall down, his hand grabbed his wrist and twisted it, making pain jolt through his arm. Dark energy enveloped the enemy and sent him flying to a nearby wall. Raven appeared next to Robin, eyes glowing.

Cyborg and Starfire used their own maneouver; when both of their attacks were united, a lethal purplish starbolt exploded, finishing almost all of the guys on their side.

"BOOYAH!" Cyborg screamed in victory, sharing a high five with Starfire.

On the other side, Kid Flash and Red Arrow were having a hard time, since the bullets were traveling pretty fast. Kid flash ran through the attackers, kicking their weapons to the floor, while the bowman knocked them out. Superboy and Aqualad carried a pile of them as well, and joined them together. Once again, the place fell silent, only the heavy breathing of the exhausted warriors was heard.

Robin moved forward to one of the attackers who was lying on the floor with his gun nearby. He grabbed his collar and pulled him up to his eye level, taking off his mask.

An electronic screen lighted up, showing a too familiar symbol of a golden S.

Dropping the limp body to the floor, he put his foot over its chest and with a grunt, pushed down on his leg. A crack of machinery was heard and cables sprung out of its chest with sparks flying around. Robin took the untouched screen with the symbol and walking to the two mixed teams he gave it to Cyborg.

"Is this enough?" He asked.

Cyborg inspected the piece of technology and grinned.

"Positive."

* * *

I know most of you had been thinking I abandoned the story. I don't have that intention so don't worry :)

This chapter is actually really short but it had to be written to follow up on the story. The next one will be introducing new characters and a bunch of information so I'm trying my best to make everything super duper clear and tie all the lose ends.

See you next chapter!


	8. Chapter 8

"Who's the guy?" Robin looked at the huge screen in the common room. A tall handsome looking man appeared on the screen with auburn hair covering his forehead; His dark brown eyes held a mysterious gaze, but his face however, felt plain and expressionless.

"Ethan Worthington. Assassin that works for money." The whole team fell silent for a moment.

"What does he have to do with anything?" Beastboy spoke up.

"By the research done, Slade is planning some kind of massive attack." Robin started. "And any massive attack.."

"Starts with a single attack." The younger hero who's mask remained narrowed finished for him.

"Ethan has killed the best. His I.Q is incredibly high, more than a human's normal score. That's the first one." The older leader continued.

"Well at least we have a clue about what's going on." Kid Flash stood up. "But what about the time thingie that'll take us back."

"Still working on it." Cyborg answered.

"Cyborg, try to track down Ethan. I'm sure that wherever he's going, Slade will be there too." Robin ordered.

"So what are you planning? Attacking them first?" Artemis said walking closer to the team leader.

Robin smirked. "You know me better than that."

"God, you haven't changed at all." She narrowed his eyes at him annoyingly, sitting on the couch.

"Ethan has been payed to kill the biggest minds in the U.S. Eric Chavez and Craig Manson" Robin said.

"I've heard about Eric. He's an astronomer who discovered an earth-like planet. The only other place fit for human life" Raven commented.

"That, and he also help build different weapons used, or kept by the U.S government." Aqualad said.

"That's him. And then Craig Manson holds the code numbers for the nuclear weapon made specifically for the U.S government, that Slade wants to use." Robin said. "What Craig doesn't know, is that Ethan has already gotten big part of the codes. He is only waiting to get the rest of them and finish him off."

"Hold it, hold it." Wally raised both index fingers. "Codes?"

"Weapons that are highly dangerous, like nuclear weapons, are not controlled by buttons, but by codes. This way the U.S government has no accidental issues that may start a war. The codes are given to at least two people in the country that know how the weapon operates and works, and are changed every year randomly." Robin answered.

"So Manson isn't the only one with the codes?" Beast boy asked.

"Sadly yes. The only other person who kept them was Grace Howard. She suffered a severe anxiety attack last year, and committed suicide." Cyborg said.

Beast boy kept a tough look and nodded. "Noted."

"So, the codes that are similar in format to the ones that operate in the robots that attacked us." Aqualad said. "So that means..."

"Someone needs to get those numbers before Slade does." Superboy completed the thought.

"Seems pretty dangerous." M'gann said.

"I think we've all been through worse, right?" Robin turned around to face both of the teams. They all looked at each other and then nodded at him.

"Ok then, here's the plan."


	9. Chapter 9

Jump City suites 10:30 a.m.

M'gann and Superboy, dressed with black civilian clothes and black sunglasses entered the hotel. They tried not to draw any attention, for the sake of their mission.

"Good Morning, welcome to Jump City Suites how may I help you?" The blonde girl standing in the hotel lobby looked at them. When she looked up she found herself staring into M'gann's blue hypnotic eyes.

"Level 103, room 5" M'gann said. With a quick nod, the worker looked through her cupboard where papers and several objects were scattered all around. She took out a key, gold in color, and gave it to M'gann without any question.

She backed away while the girl stared, still hypnotized. Then she broke her trance, and the girl shuddered, looked around, and kept on with her routine, as if nothing has happened.

M'gann and Superboy got into the elevator.

"We got the key" Superboy spoke, and a voice came to his ear from the tiny ear bud he was wearing.

"Great work guys. Aqualad, Artemis and Red Arrow will be meeting you soon. Wait until the rest of us get there for further instructions, Robin out." Superboy shot a look at M'gann, who heard all the conversation. She smiled slyly and Superboy looked away.

" _Well, aren't you hard to read…"_ She thought to herself.

Robin and Wally sat down in the nearby bar, with similar clothing in black. They kept their eyes on a man wearing a suit who drank his morning coffee. That man was Ethan Worthington.

"Man, for an assassin, that guy sure looks like a softy." Wally said in a low voice. "What kind of person adds so much milk to their coffee?"

"Looks aren't everything, right?" Robin took a sip of his drink. "You sure sound like an ex barista judging people by their orders. Shame on you Wally."

"Excuse me, if I were any type of Barista I would be the one to write people's names wrong on purpose, and flirt with them to get better tips." Wally defended himself.

The pair both laughed and fist bumped.

"Robin? How's everything over there?" A voice came through the ear buds, interrupting their conversation.

"We're in position." He answered. "He's just sitting, having his coffee I guess."

"Great. Just remember to move wherever he does, until he gets the message." The older leader spoke to him, reassuring their every move.

"Copied." Wally said through a mouthful of croissants. "Man, these are good!" He said throwing a bunch of them into his mouth.

Ethan turned around to face the teenagers who froze under his gaze. He narrowed his eyes and looked away almost immediately.

"Kids." He said under his breath quietly, while shaking his head.

Robin's nervous smile faded and he bumped his fist against the speedster's head.

"Would you keep it down? We're in an suicide mission."

"No we're not, it's an undercover mission." He rubbed his head.

"It's suicide whenever I'm with you." Robin said, keeping his eyes on Ethan.

"Well, Robbie, I love you too." Wally said sarcastically, throwing a couple of croissants into his mouth.

There was a knock on the door and M'gann hurried to open it. Artemis, Aqualad and Red Arrow were all dressed in black. They entered the suite and sat around a table were Robin's face was seen through a laptop.

"Ok guys, listen very carefully. Worthington is in the lobby, and he'll be meeting Starfire and Beastboy for a 'service'. We made him think both of them need his help to kill someone else, and that they are also part of Slade's scheme, which will make him believe that the codes are safe to give out to them. We will trade money for the first part of the codes. When he moves out, Artemis and Red Arrow I want you to enter the elevator with him and knock him out with a tranquilizer that Robin will give you."

"For what reason?" Artemis asked.

"We need him out of the way. Since Eric and Craig will be at the hotel doing some investigation on their own, we don't want to run the risk of them getting killed."

"Won't it be a little weird for people to see me carrying someone unconscious around the lobby?" Red Arrow's eyebrow twitched.

"You'll take him to the nursing center, it'll look like he fainted. There, Cyborg and Raven will explain what to do next. Aqualad, M'gann and Superboy, you'll be able to see the meeting happen. If anything goes wrong, you'll help. Everything clear?"

"Positive." Aqualad said.

"Great, we'll be arriving soon, once we send the message, you'll be notified. Robin out."

Aqualad looked at his teammates.

"Now, we wait."

Cyborg and Raven geared up with white suits.

"Ugh I hate white."

"That's weird, white is Beast Boy's favorite color" Cyborg said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well look at that." She shot a death glare to Cyborg. "Another reason to hate it even more."

"Besides, I think that white suits you, especially after you wore it when the whole Trigon thing happened." Cyborg opened up a laptop, trying to get them connected to the rest of the team.

Raven shuddered at the memory. "Happy Times right?" She said sarcastically.

Cyborg smiled innocently and waited for further orders to be given.

Robin, Starfire and Beastboy entered the building shortly. While on the elevator Robin gave Beastboy a container with contact lenses that were clear except for a grid of green lines that were very thin, almost invisible.

"When Ethan gives you the codes, you'll 'read' them and blink two times while watching over them. That'll activate the printer in the other room." Robin instructed.

Beastboy took the tiny container carefully and looked at it in awe. "Dude! Were did you get these?" He asked.

Robin and Starfire looked at each other.

"Cyborg."

A ding filled the elevator and Beastboy stepped out, almost knocking over a trashcan while putting on the contacts.

"I'm okay!" Came his voice from outside.

Robin shook his head and looked at Star for a moment.

"Don't let him mess anything up, please." He said almost scared.

Starfire smiled. "Everything will be okay, do not worry."

Nodding quickly he planted a light kiss on her lips before she stepped out of the elevator.

"Good Luck." She mouthed, and then the elevator doors closed, leaving him alone once again.

Well what do you know?

I disappear for God-knows how long and I am back with two chapters! Woohoo!

I really do apologize for taking so long, but the chapters to come are being majorly re written to make the plot line more fluid.

So I'll try to upload as much as I can during this week, and hopefully keep up.

Thank you for reading!


	10. Chapter 10

"Okay everyone in position, the message was sent." Robin sent the starting signal for their mission, that took more than 10 hours of planning. Needless to say, nobody got any sleep that night, and both teams were looking forward to having the mission turn out as they planned it exactly. The green tinted heroes were camouflaged by Cyborg's rings, making their skin Caucasian, and any other bright physical appearances, like Star's bright red hair and Raven's violet bob, were also taken care of. As Raven said before she dyed her hair completely black "It better be worth it."

Wally and Beastboy saw Ethan look at his phone for a moment and then he nodded at two security guards nearby who followed him out of the bar. He walked quickly, and kept his sight to the front.

"Ethan is on the move." Robin stood up and Wally followed, entering the elevator right beside them, up to the floor 103.

About 5 minutes that seemed like eternity went through, Robin and Wally left the elevator, making sure that Ethan had gone to the corresponding floor where his meeting with Star and Beast boy would take place, and then got into the room where their teammates were.

"How is it?" Robin took off his jacket and looked at the screen.

"They're in the room already." Superboy said.

The door opened once again, revealing the older Robin. He was dressed in black, with matching sunglasses.

"Well, here we go." He said as he stepped into the room.

Ethan and the security guards went inside looking around the room. They looked at every frame, every wall, making sure it was safe, but didn't detect the tiny camera on a wall, that gave the team perfect view over the meeting.

Starfire looked at Beastboy, who gave a quick nod.

"Which one of you is Ethan Worthington?" She asked politely. Her naivety was replaced by a serious smile. Her usual purple outfit was know an elegant black dress that hugged her curves gently, and matched with her new black tinted hair, which she hoped was temporary.

"I am." The handsome man extended his arm, grabbing her hand, and kissed the back of her palm. "Pleasure to meet you." He said with a charming smile. Looking over Beastboy his smile disappeared visibly. "And you."

"Pleasure is ours." Beastboy said sarcastically. His animal senses were going crazy, since Ethan wasn't a trustworthy person; never the less he tried to hide it the best way he could.

"Please, take a seat." Starfire said.

Ethan sat down and the security guards stood by his side.

"I believe you have a good uh..." Ethan looked at Beastboy straight in the eye. He looked around, trying to stop his own eyes to make contact with the assassin.

"Pay? We do." Starfire finished for him. "As long as you keep the part of the trait."

"I re assure you I do, miss." He smiled. Starfire felt incredibly disgusted with his fake smile. She swallowed what seems to feel like shards of glass and then flashed a smile at the security guards.

Beast boy looked into his jacket and took out piece of paper. He handed it to Star; he was only there to take pictures and nod, and decided she would do the talking.

Ethan snapped his fingers and the guard quickly took a couple of papers out of his suitcase, giving them to Ethan. Ethan passed the papers to Starfire, and she moved her arm, but stopped mid way.

Ethan cocked a brow.

"Gar, check if they're ok." She said, looking into Ethan's eyes.

Beastboy received the papers and followed Robin's directions, blinking twice on each. The printer let out the codes in the other room; Red Arrow walked to them and took them in his hands.

"We got the codes." He spoke.

"Excellent, phase 1 is complete." Robin exhaled and relaxed for a bit.

Back in the other room, Ethan eyed Beastboy mysteriously. The changeling nodded and Starfire gave away the check. After Ethan took it in his hands, he smiled satisfied.

"Nice doing business with you." He stood up and extended his arm. When Starfire did the same, he grabbed her arm and dug a sharp nail into her skin.

Starfire jerked her arm away from him, gasping from the sudden pain.

"Kill them both."

As soon as he spoke the security guards fired at Beastboy and Starfire who sprang into action.

In the other room Red Arrow went to the door quickly, to help the titans that were being attacked.

"Wait!" The older Robin said looking at the screen.

Beast boy knocked one of them out with a punch and grabbed his gun. Starfire twisted the other security guard's arm, making him yelp in pain, and knocked him out as well, taking control of his weapon. Starfire looked at Ethan, who held his arms up nervously.

"Out. Or I'll fire." Starfire growled, pointing the gun at him dangerously.

He took a step forward and Beastboy filled up his gun, pointing him as well, confirming his intentions to open fire. Ethan narrowed his eyes at him, then he looked at Starfire, watching the blood drip from the wound he had made, and slowly stepped out with a smile, never giving his back to either of them.

"Ethan is on the move." Beastboy informed once Ethan was out the hall.

Robin turned to Red Arrow, who was still standing at the door, waiting for directions.

"Now you can go." He said, keeping his eyes on the screen.

Red Arrow and Artemis went out and took the elevator, were Ethan went in afterwards panting heavily. Red Arrow took the injection in his hands and aimed it carefully. He sweat dropped, and finally inserted it once the elevator door closed.. Ethan made no move at it, not even a flinch.

The he turned around, his eyes big as saucers, his smile fading. That's when the elevator stopped, and they were open to everyone's view. Ethan fainted on Red Arrow's arms, as he was dragged outside.

"Hey, everything okay?" Red Arrow followed the act as a group of tourists eyed him mysteriously. "Honey, I think we need to take him to a hospital."

He looked at Artemis. She quickly opened space in between the tourists, guiding Red Arrow and a fainted Ethan to the nursing room.

"We are in the nursing room" She said when they had reached Cyborg and Raven.

"Got that." Robin answered. "Aqualad, I need you and Superboy to get to that room and make sure the guards don't try anything."

"Got it." Aqualad and Superboy moved out.

"Starfire?" Robin spoke into the mic.

"I hear you." She said shortly after.

"Get information about anyone else that Ethan may have sent."

Starfire dropped the gun she held in her hands, and took one of the guards by the collar pulling him up to her level, inches from her face. Her eyes narrowed dangerously

"Did Ethan send anyone else?" She asked.

The guard chuckled. "I ain't talking."

Her grip moved to his neck, and got stronger by the second. The guard was starting to struggle, before he spit out some words.

"K-Kurt waters." Starfire dropped her serious expression and worry splashed over her face. She dropped the guard unconscious and looked at Beastboy.

"What's wrong?" He said.

"Ethan sent someone else in here." She answered.

Beast boy started to the door, but then turned around quickly when he heard Star yell in pain.

The guard has stabbed her leg with a medium sized pocketknife, and was holding her down. Starfire kicked one of her heels to his face, and Beast boy took the opportunity to knock him out with a punch.

Star stood up with difficulty, her leg bleeding.

"I am fine, it is just a wound."

"Here" Beast boy ripped off a piece of his shirt's fabric and used it as a turnstile.

"No little pocket knife is going to stop you is it?" He smiled at her and guided her to the door.

Starfire smiled back "It never will."

Robin stood up alert and looked at the remaining heroes.

"M'gann and Robin find Craig and guard him. Wally, find Eric and don't let him near the nursing room where Ethan is."

Robin himself sped down the hallway and into the elevator, where he found Beastboy and Starfire. He immediately looked at Starfire's leg, where the turnstile was tinted red from the blood.

"Ethan sent someone else here. We already tracked him down." Beast boy said before Robin could ask what happened.

"We can knock him down and take him to the nursing center." Robin said. "Who's the guy?"

"Kurt Waters" Beast boy answered.

"Raven, is Ethan awake?" Starfire tried to contact her through her microphone while Robin and Beast boy spoke.

"No, but we found something interesting." Raven's response came.

She sounded worried, and Starfire could hear voices of people talking about in the background.

"What is it?" By now, Robin and Beast boy were trying to hear what Raven was saying.

"There's a bomb in level 52. Ethan has a device counting down, but it's all encrypted, I have no idea when it might explode. You must get everyone down here fast!" Raven said.

Starfire looked at the number displayed on the elevator screen. 52.

"Oh no." She said.

"Starfire?"

She moved to the buttons, stopping the elevator. The chamber shook, making Beastboy loose his balance and fall down.

"Ow."

"Starfire what happened?" Robin took balance with the wall.

"I don't think Ethan was planning to get out of this alive." She said as she waited for the doors to open.

"What exactly do you mean?" Beastboy regained his balance with one of the bars on the elevator's walls.

"There is a bomb in this level, Raven found this information from Ethan himself, he has the countdown device with him, we have to get everybody out!" She opened the doors with her own strength and scattered to the hall. Beastboy opened his eyes in shock and pushed Robin out, knocking on every door and getting everyone out safely.

Ethan opened his eyes and sat up in the bed. He was in a completely white room that had a strange scent of medicine and bathroom soap. He rubbed his head and tried to clear his vision. By the other end of the room, he saw a nurse, with black bobbed hair and violet eyes. She looked at him and gave him a try of a smile.

"Hello Ethan" Raven said.

"How do you know my name?"

"Oh don't worry, you kind of fainted on the way down, but an ambulance will take you home." She said turning her back to him once more. "Everyone is leaving the hotel actually, there is a bomb somewhere. But you'll be out of here in no time, don't worry."

"No can do ma'am." Ethan said, trying to stand up. His legs wobbled and fell down on his knees. He slammed his fist to the floor in rage.

"You can't walk, the medicine given won't fade out until 24 hours." Cyborg stepped out from another door of the room and looked at his clipboard. He looked entirely normal, thanks to the holo-ring.

"You two drugged me." He narrowed his eyes.

The door burst open and inside came M'gann, wearing a hotel worker suit.

"Sir, we're evacuating the whole building, please step out of the room."

Ethan turned his head, but Raven and Cyborg were gone. He looked at M'gann.

"The nurses, they..." He tried to speak desperately.

"Sir, there's no time, you must leave."

M'gann helped him up.

"God dammit they..." He found his tongue tied, cursing the medication that he was given.

Superboy and Aqualad entered the room with a medical wheeled bed and put Ethan onto it. He desperately tried to talk about what Red Arrow sedated him with, but he had no energy.

They escorted him to the ambulance. Outside, Robin, Wally, Artemis and Red Arrow waited, along with Raven and Cyborg.

"Where's BB" Cyborg looked around the humongous crowd running outside of the building.

Suddenly the whole tower collapsed sending debris flying everywhere. People ran away from the dangerous zone with screams and the cars drove away quickly as well; that's when Raven remembered.

They were still inside.


	11. Chapter 11

"You guys get everyone out of here safe! M'gann help me with this." Raven flew up and M'gann followed suit. The rest of them still on the ground shoo-ed everyone to a safe place.

The falling piece of the tower was enveloped in black energy. Raven raised it to the sky, revealing level 52, in all its disgrace. She took the top of the tower and placed it in an abandoned territory nearby, trying not to cause any more commotion.

They both flew inside, and when they saw nothing but broken furniture, metallic scrap and broken moles of cement, they got desperate.

"Robin?" M'gann's voice was a whisper through the deadly silence. The rooms were destroyed, the elevator was a dark hole and the walls were no longer up, but they were just rock and junk.

"Beastboy? Starfire?" Raven flew over, picking up any heavy items she found.

"Raven!" Her heart skipped a beat as M'gann waved her to her side.

When Raven reached it she was relieved. Beast boy, Robin and Starfire managed to keep themselves safe. They were in fetal position on the ground.

"Thank God." She said relieved.

Beastboy morphed into a pterodactyl and picked Robin up.

"Star can you fly?" Robin asked.

"Barely." She made little floating jumps but fell down immediately. Her turnstile was now dripping in blood. "This wasn't a joyous situation, at all."

"Here I'll help you." M'gann flew to her side and grabbed her arms.

The group soon reached the ground safely, as a group of people gathered around and tried to capture the heroes' sighting with their cameras. Raven enveloped all of them in their black magic, and brought them to the tower.

"Stats." Robin stood in front of the mixed teams. The girls were sitting on the couch, while the men were scattered across the main room.

"The two dudes made it out safely, but uh…" Kid Flash hesitated.

"What happened?"

"We received information that Eric is leaving for India tomorrow, and Kurt is following him." Robin looked at his older self. The titan looked at the ground, trying to think of a reason for Eric's decision.

"That's it!" M'gann stood up. "He's going to India for Mackenzie's party."

"Ryan Mackenzie? The billionaire?" Artemis asked. "Why would Eric..."

"He's one of the greatest minds in the U.S, if he's invited, it'll be a good image for Mackenzie." M'gann finished her thought.

"Exactly what I was about to say." Artemis said sarcastically.

"What about Craig? Is he going to India?" Superboy asked.

"Yes." Aqualad answered.

"They just made everything easier for us." Beastboy said from his side of the room. When no other word was spoken, the changeling rolled his eyes.

"Dudes! We hop to India and save Craig's and Eric's butts from Ethan and Kurt!" He said simply.

"Makes sense, actually." Raven lowered her hood.

"It does?" Beastboy raised his eyebrow.

"But I am sure this time we'll have to do more than 'saving their butts'." She looked at Robin who was facing at the screen.

"Much more. Craig and Eric must be carrying something valuable, something important for Kurt. I dare say, more important that weapon codes for Slade." He stopped and looked at the ground. "There's something he holds that they want besides that." He looked at the floor thinking for a moment. "Cyborg, when will that portal be ready?"

"Since I figured some other ways to speed it up, I'd say in less than a week."

"We could use a little help." Robin looked at Aqualad, waiting expectantly. His team looked at him with pleading eyes. He knew the Justice League wouldn't approve their disappearance for much longer, but what choice did he had?

"We can help." Aqualad smiled brightly as his team smiled as well.

"Pack your things, we're heading for India."


	12. Chapter 12

Nothing much more happened that night, apart from planning an impromptu trip to India, which means the team was still going to be trapped in the future for who knows how long. Their only worries were based on what the League might be planning to get them back, and what might happen in the long run if they stayed to long living in the future. Nevertheless, Cyborg re assured them that it would be fine, and that they would be back in their own time, pronto. So each one of their worries faded away, slowly.

Except for someone who couldn't yet fall asleep, even after the hell-ish day they all had.

Superboy sat down on the rocky shore of the island, throwing pebbles to the water that shined with the moonlight reflection. He felt distracted, almost distant from everything that was happening. The day had been such a rush that he just knew there was something wrong in not feeling even a pinch of emotion about it.

Though deep inside, he knew well what this was about. Or rather, 'who' this was about. More specifically, having trouble in specifying what emotion he was feeling towards that 'who'. The way she was always there to help, always so bright. It made him happy to be around her. But he couldn't find anything in himself to actually accept all of M'ganns' light into his life, without ruining it one way or another.

He threw a rock to the water and stalked it with his eyes, as if he could see when it would reach the bottom of the sea.

It was no secret to him the fact that Robin was a completely different person in the future, and also around Starfire. He'd never imagine him being so serious, with his own team, with having a relationship. Batman was always pressuring him not to let people close; a relationship was considered dangerous for the young hero, since any enemy could use it as a target. But somehow, the kid managed to keep his whole team safe, including her. Well, at least that is how it is now, was it always like this? After all, he had only been here for some time.

"How does he even do that?" He muttered under his breath quietly, annoyed at himself.

"You should be asleep." He hard a voice from behind, so silent it almost seemed like a whisper. Turning around he saw Starfire, concern drawn in her eyes. Her black hair raised up in a ponytail, wearing a purple shirt with the words 'I heart Beast boy' and black pyjama shorts. He couldn't help but silently chuckle at it, and she noticed.

"It was a Christmas gift." She said laughing as well. "And it is not a lie. I do love my friends." She walked closer to him.

"I'm not tired. Besides I can sleep in the airplane." He turned around, facing the beautiful landscape in front of him. "And on that note, I'll make sure to gift Artemis a shirt with Wally's face for Christmas."

From the corner of his eyes he saw her sitting down carefully. Her leg was still bandaged with a turnstile, and her arm was also lightly bandaged. She grunted when trying to extend her leg to find a comfortable position. When she finally did she sighed, and kept looking at the moon.

He studied her face. She was definitely beautiful. Her eye color was a pure emerald green, and her tanned skin was just the perfect combination for it. The black hair she had to get made her eyes pop out even more, but he was sure Robin could see past the physical.

"You are distracted." She said suddenly, still looking at the moon.

Superboy tensed up a bit.

"I am not able to read people's emotions like Raven, but I am not able to lie when I notice something." She didn't turn to look at him, but she knew he was staring, since the moment she sat down.

"Can I ask you something?" Superboy said. She turned her face at him and waited.

"You and Robin?" He struggled to try and find the right words for his question. "I mean, isn't it dangerous for all of you? Villain's must use you a lot as a target."

Starfire furrowed her brows in deep concentration. "Superboy, when you are a superhero, villains can use anyone you know as a target. Someone you took a picture with, someone who served you a pizza, even someone who you do not know, but want to keep safe. I am equal to the rest of my teammates, and Robin would go to the end of the world if it meant to keep all of us safe. I honestly don't know how he did it, but it brought the team together."

"How?"

She looked away "After all that time we spent together, Robin showed a side of him that none of us knew, and he trusts us, as his family. Keeping these feelings hidden would've just made it worse in the long run. A lot of people tried to take advantage of them when we weren't yet together."

"Things haven't changed that much at least." Superboy replied silently.

Starfire looked at him. "Do you ask me this because of M'gann?"

Superboy tensed up, and Starfire noticed immediately.

"N-no, why?" He couldn't stop stuttering no matter how much he wanted to.

"I was just merely curious." Starfire stated, closing her eyes, as if absorbing the moonlight. A sly smile appeared on her mouth, knowing she was right.

How did she even know so much? She just met him a few days ago, how much did she even knew? Maybe it was too obvious, so he took the chance and asked her, knowing that what he said wouldn't be known by any of his teammates.

"Truth is." He looked at her. "Maybe I did. But I don't want to tell her. What if she's hurt because of me? I don't want her to be hurt because of me. What if I can't.."

"Protect her?" Starfire finished off.

He sat still.

"Superboy, if you do feel like this towards M'gann you should tell her, so that she knows. If you're truly worried about her, you should know that she is able take care of herself." She opened her eyes and turned her face back to him.

"I know she can. I just don't want her to be one of my weaknesses." Superboy sighed.

"Any teammate is a weakness." Starfire replied. "You should tell her."

Superboy cupped his head on his palms. "How are you so sure she likes me back?"

Starfire smiled in the darkness. "I used to say that to myself all the time." She positioned her arms behind her, leaning on them and looking at the sky.

Superboy looked at the alien beside him, who was gazing at the dark night that lighted up with stars glittering over the ocean.

"How did you found out the truth?" He asked.

Starfire tried to remember the words Robin spoke in Tokyo, and it was easy to do. "We became more than just super heroes, more than just team mates." She looked at him. "That's how I found out. If you're always scared about what might happen it's because you keep thinking that things are going to go wrong."

"It wasn't easy though." She said. "Robin had a very dark time. Slade was his number one priority, and even when he was defeated, it still haunted him. He gave his back to us, became his apprentice."

Superboys tried and conceal his surprise, but it was something difficult to digest. The fact that he willingly became the apprentice of the sick-minded person who was doing all of this.

"Wow. I am sure all of you were disappointed in him."

"We sure were. We were close to giving up on him at one point. He just wouldn't listen to any of us, because he was so into the thought that he was protecting us, when he pushed us away. We almost lost him once." She shuddered at the memory.

Superboy looked at her expressionless. He could see the sadness in her eyes. No one should go through seeing a teammate suffer, especially when there are such strong feelings in between.

"Thankfully he got through it, and so did we."

Superboy nodded softly, trying to imagine the situation.

"I shall go to sleep, it is really late." Star stood up carefully and hovered over the ground for a second. She broke through Super boy's thoughts for a moment.

"Good night then." He kept his face expressionless, and then turned around.

"Hey! Uh Starfire?" She turned around quickly and smiled.

"Thanks." He half smiled.

"You are welcome." She said silently, loud enough for him to hear.

Who knew a girl he met just about 48 hours ago would know so much. He was grateful to have clear what had to be done, and with that beautiful thought he got up and walked into the tower, crawled on his bed and fell into a dream-less slumber.

I have this headcannon in which Star and Beast boy have the cutest friendship ever and they both have shirts of each other, don't judge.

Sooooooo basically I'm trying to build friendships in between the two teams and this is just the tip of the iceberg, also trying to figure out what to do with all that timey wimey stuff, since whenever I see or read something time traveling related, it always end up with someone tampering their storyline and doing something stupid (I am definitely talking about Rose trying to save her father in .) and then getting everyone to disappear. So yeah I got a lot of thinking to do, but for now, lets keep enjoying the fact that I am uploading so much in one day, yay!


	13. Chapter 13

"Dudes, I think I have air sickness." Wally said as he straightened up in his seat, covering his mouth.

"That sounds pretty impossible, considering you can break the sound barrier wearing your sneakers and eat while doing it." Raven said rising her head from the book.

"Trust me, you don't know what it is to work with him." Artemis said from her seat.

"Hey! I brighten up everyone's day, right Supey?" He smiled brightly at Superboy sitting by his side. Superboy looked at him with a straight face.

"Don't call me that." Wally's face fell, and he sunk into his chair pouting.

"Aww are we there yet?" Beast boy said entering the chamber and taking a seat in a nearby passenger chair. There was a lot of space in between the chairs, almost like a normal room.

"No! And if you ask again I'll stuff a steak down you veggie throat. Ya hear me green bean?" Cyborg screamed from the control room.

"Geez, what an attitude!" He morphed into a puppy and sat down on the floor.

"Where are Aqualad and Robin?" M'gann asked.

"Inside the control room." Starfire walked in and took a seat as well. "They are trying to think of a plan to make the mission successful"

"That means we are here?!" Beast boy morphed back into his human form and jumped around excitedly.

"Not exactly." Starfire answered.

M'gann glanced at Starfire's leg, which only had a dark scar that was starting to heal. "Hey! Your leg is so much better today!" She said happily. "How about that arm?"

Star inspected her leg as well, and sticked out her arm, which was band aid free and healing pretty quickly. "Yes! Raven was able to help me heal faster. It is incredibly to think how much pain a pocketknife can cause. Or an abnormally long fingernail"

She shuddered at the memory of it and sat down.

Beast boy pouted and turned back into a puppy, sitting on Starfire's healing leg.

"It's only been 2 hours and 45 minutes. Calm down, India isn't around the corner." Raven said, looking at the little creature moping and yawning. She glanced at Superboy and Red Arrow, who kept silent through out all the conversation for some reason. Cyborg and the two Robin's stepped out of the control room and all the looks fell on them.

"We got a plan" The younger Robin said with a smile.

India's streets were packed with people running across traffic. The yelling of the people mixed with the rummaging of cars and bikes drifted around the night sky, and the young heroes inside the limo could hear it. Each one of them wore a suit; exception was the young Robin, who chose to wear his signature dark glasses.

Aqualad and Red Arrow exchanged a meaningless glance, while Wally drummed his fingers on the window. Superboy stared out of the window, amazed at how he had seen so many women wearing their black veils over their faces and bodies. The clash of cultures was definitely astounding for him; this was a whole different place than where they had been the night before. His thoughts were interrupted as he heard the rest of the guys shuffling out of the car. He recollected himself and followed, as the car made its way to the messy streets full of people once again.

He turned his view to the huge arch's that made the hotel entrance glow in all it's sparkly appearance. The lobby could be seen from the sidewalk, well lightened and decorated with Indian themed paintings.

Robin let out an admiring whistle.

"A night here should be more expensive than the Wayne Manor itself."

He commented looking at the sophisticated detail in the woodcarvings that made up the roof.

"Dude, I think a night here costs more than Bruce Wayne itself." Wally commented looking around.

Superboy looked at Aqualad impatiently shrugging his shoulders.

"They'll be here any minute." He answered simply.

As if on cue, another car parked itself on the sidewalk's road and it's door opened. Artemis and M'gann emerged from it wearing elegant large gowns for the occasion. M'gann was morphed into her caucasian skin, wearing a pale pink dress that made her auburn locks stand out. Artemis wore a blue dress, her hair was up in her signature ponytail, but jewelry made her eyes stand out. Both of them looked entirely different to how they showed up in their normal attire, making most of the boys impressed at how only a bit of makeup and a dress could change someone.

"Well, Megs look at you." Wally gave her a flirtatious smirk. "You make steam look cold." Wiggling his eyebrow, he laughed softly and M'gann blushed.

"Don't get your hopes up kid, I think Robin left the mission pairs arranged, we have other things to do." Red Arrow commented bumping his fist lightly on the speedster's shoulder.

"So?" He kept his gaze straight onto M'gann until Artemis' hand collapsed with his neck.

"Ouch!" He rubbed his neck eyeing the blonde. "Fine let's go." He followed Robin and Red Arrow to the elevator.

Superboy positioned his folded arm besides M'gann, lifting it a bit. M'gann looked at it and smiled, crossing her arm with his. Aqualad and Artemis entered the great ballroom with the kryptonian and martian. All around, Indian music played and people scattered around waving their conversations in the air, as if they were alone. In the center of the room, dancers with veils covering the half top of their bodies and the bottom top as well, revealing a great part of their flat and toned stomachs, danced in a coordinated circle, as the center of entertainment.

"Keep your eyes open." Aqualad said before taking Artemis with him, making their way through the crowd.

Superboy eyed M'gann. He tried not to make it evident he was staring at her face. She looked amazing, but his face didn't show any emotion, just a lopsided, awkward grin.

"I think we should act naturally." She said.

"Because we are the most naturally normal people in the room, right?" He held out his hand. M'gann looked at it, then at him, blushing madly. Seeing no reaction, Superboy looked at his hand and held it out a bit further nodding quickly. M'gann smiled and took it in hers, as he led their way into the ocean of dancing couples.

Beast boy inspected every person carefully, looking frantically for Mackenzie, though not so evidently. He saw Robin and Starfire entering the ballroom from the corner of his eye, and then saw Raven, leaning on a nearby wall beside the bar, wearing a long dark violet dress that had a low cut on the front. He smiled secretly. She looked beautiful.

She turned around, exposing her back, as a man walked nearer to her. Beast boy jolted slightly and recognized him immediately.

It was Mackenzie.

"Whoa dude." Wally marveled on the thousands of television screens set by Cyborg in the control room.

"Outstanding." Red Arrow commented dully. "Anything about Eric and Craig?"

"Nothing. But Ethan and Kurt are being watched by Robin and Star; that's good enough for now." Cyborg said.

Red Arrow sat down and looked at one screen where Raven was talking with Mackenzie.

"Great, she's talking to him already, that's progress." Cyborg wheeled his chair and talked into a tiny microphone located on his arm.

"Robin, Mackenzie is talking."

There was static for a moment. "Great, you guys know what to do." Robin answered.

Wally stood up dramatically and put on his goggles that rested on a nearby cupboard.

"Let's do this."

"...No, I do not care is he's the president of the United States, no invitation means no entrance, no exceptions." Mackenzie spoke rather loudly over the crowd of talking people to a man wearing a vest and looking rather nervous, almost terrified. The man nodded, stuttering he gave a little bow and awkwardly scattered away, while Mackenzie turned to Raven, who didn't make any eye contact at all

"Have I impressed you yet?" He placed his hand over hers. Raven tried not to flinch. He hated too direct people, and Mackenzie had no manners on how to treat someone you just met. She quickly concentrated on her move, and drew a smile. Turning her head in a rather elegant way she cocked her head slightly.

"Do you think so?" She said softly. Mackenzie smiled brightly.

Beast boy watched the scene unfold in front of him. From time to time he looked around, trying to see if he caught Ethan or Kurt, but he knew that Robin and Star would probably take care of that, so he kept his view on Raven. Sipping from a glass from time to time, just to mix in with the crowd, since Robin strictly said no drinking during the job, he decided to have a cup of water.

"Pathetic." He whispered to himself, swallowing hard and scoffing, as Mackenzie shot a flirtatious smile to Raven. She laughed in a very fake manner that could be seen from miles away, which made Beast boy chuckle. He knew how much she wanted to disappear from the scene, and be back at her room at the tower meditating the night away.

Then after a time, Kid Flash and Robin's voices interrupted his thoughts through the intercom. It seemed like they had forgotten to turn it off and the whole team could listen to their conversation.

 _"Remember you won't be able to use your powers KF, that room won't let you by any chance do anything that involves super speed." Cyborg stated._

 _"Got it and got it." Kid Flash said._

"Everyone in position?" Robin said from the ballroom.

"Positive." Red Arrow said.

"Good to go." Cyborg put in.

"We're on the lookout here." Robin said.

 _Inside the security control room, Robin nodded at Kid Flash, notifying his move. Kid Flash proceeded to a giant door that had no floor to the other side, but a giant tunnel towards the basement of the building. To the very bottom, a wheel of sharp fan-like blades was spinning quickly. The fast movements made the fan emit a loud sound, one that the speedster imagined to be even louder when a person was closer to it_

 _"Ok KF jump. The blades will stop spinning once you reach the bottom. Your closeness will be detected and that's all we need for this to work." Cyborg talked loudly enough for the speedster to hear._

 _"Are you sure?" He said nervously, a single drop of sweat appearing from his forehead._

 _"Yes. I checked everything twice, Wally. Once your body gets as five inches near the blades, they'll stop. Just jump." Cyborg said not looking away from his cybernetic arm._

 _"Now?" He stretched his arms using the huge rectangular frame that gave way to the tunnel, pushing his body to the front and then to the back, exhaling and inhaling._

 _"Now!" Robin said from his side of the room._

 _"Okay okay..." He skipped repeatedly on his place, getting ready for jumping. He poked his head out the door periodically as if the height would change with the skipping. "I'm getting ready… To jump."_

 _"Kid, we're loosing time." Aqualad broke the silence._

 _"You have to jump." Red Arrow said dully._

 _"N-now?" Kid Flash sweat dropped._

Raven shivered. The guy's conversation made her too nervous, so much that her emotions could make something nearby explode. In fact, everyone was pretty nervous. She caught a glimpse of Beast boy nearby, who kept looking at the floor, listening to the scene unfold. She did the best to keep it hidden, but inside her head, she was screaming. If KF's moved failed, the whole mission could fail too, not to mention, they would end up with a severely damaged speedster and a bad story in the daily news. As Mackenzie talked, she just listened carefully, hoping for the best.

 _"Robin, now?" Kid Flash asked, knowing the answer._

 _"Jump!" Robin said loudly._

 _Kid Flash put on his goggles and before a second thought he jumped. His colleague widened his eyes behind his glasses and ran to the doorframe, shocked by the sudden movement. Looking down, he saw Kid Flash floating over the now static blades, panting heavily as he stopped abruptly over the deadly fan._

 _"WHOA!" He cried. He didn't move, or reacted more than that, other than letting a huge intake of breath out. "I'm okay guys! Everything's fine." His voice cracked for a second and he just kept still without any sudden movements._

Opposite to Raven

In the moment she heard the air swishing through the microphone, she squeezed Mackenzie's hand in a violent way, almost breaking his knuckles and leaving a red mark.

"Agh!" Mackenzie jerked his hand off from hers. He shot her a look in between confusion and rage. Raven kept her smile straight and looked at him, now begging he wouldn't leave. Mackenzie turned around massaging his hand, and walked away.

"Fuck." Beast boy saw everything.

"What happened?" Superboy spoke out.

"We lost him." Beast boy said.

"Star, I need help." Raven said, trying to keep calm. Her voice almost broke from the rage she felt. She wasn't going to let Kid Flash risk himself for nothing.

"I know what to do. Just wait over there." Starfire chimed into the conversation, and ended up in static.

" _Guys everything ok? I didn't jump for nothing right?" Wally spoke from his mic._

"Stay put Wally, everything's going to be fine." The titan's leader answered.

" _Yeah I'll just wait. Don't worry." He said laughing nervously, as he floated over the static, but still dangerously sharp, fan._

Beast boy looked at Raven back in the ballroom, waiting for Starfire's help. But she never got to Raven. Beast boy looked around, and saw her and Robin walking towards his place.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to help Raven." He said pointing at the bar desperately.

"I will. Listen, I need your assistance to do something." Starfire leaned in his ear whispering something. Beast boy's eyes widened in shock and he shook his head wildly.

"She'll slap me!" He said, still shaking his head. "She'll slap me reeeeal good."

"She won't, you need to trust me." Starfire said calmly. "It is for the sake of the mission friend. Please." Star's pleading eyes moved him. Robin shrugged when Beast boy looked at him fro an answer. Robin didn't know what Star had said, but he had to have hope that it would work somehow.

Beast boy softly nodded, accepting finally. "Ok fine. But I swear to God if she hurts me Star…"

"She won't, I promise, now go!" She said cutting his sentence and pushing him towards Raven. Beast boy walked nervously towards her as Robin and Starfire walked to the dance floor. He took her hand and gingerly placed it on his shoulder as he placed his on her waist, swaying gently.

"So, what is he going to do?" Robin said raising an eyebrow.

Starfire smirked. "You'll see." She said, keeping her eyes on Raven.

Raven raised a cup gingerly. She looked at the surface of the marble board where the drinks were served and drank it, jerking her head backward. She figures she'd deal with Robin's 'no drinking' rule later. Frustrated, she tried to get it re-filled, but a hand fell over hers, preventing any movement. She saw Beast boy's face looking concerned.

He left her hand and placed it softly on her cheek.

"Star's idea. Please don't kill me." He said.

After that, it happened so fast. One moment she was standing there, trying to get over how she had ruined everything by letting Mackenzie go, and the next moment Beast boy had his lips pressed against hers.

She fell into the kiss and placed her hands on his chest, closing her eyes that were open like saucers thanks to the surprise. Beast boy broke the kiss and tucked a fallen strand of hair behind her ear. Raven stood there, emotion less, and then a waiter stood besides her holding a tray full of cell phones organized neatly in a line. He lowered the tray, allowing her to take the ringing device and answered it, trying to fix her loss of words thanks to what had just happened.

"H-hello." She said nervously.

"You are a creature of desire and full of passion." Mackenzie's voice was heard. Raven breathed with relief.

" _Thank you."_ She mouthed the words at the changeling, who nodded with a smile and turned around, walking slowly away from her.

"My job here is done." He said to himself.

"Would you like to make me company in my secret room?". Raven shuddered at the voice she heard from the cellphone, but combed her hair with her fingers, flashing her signal to Aqualad and Artemis, who where nearby.

"If I say yes... Will you come out?" Raven said, trying to sound as honest as possible.

There was silence for a moment. Artemis tensed up in Aqualad's arms and looked at him nervously.

"You'll have to find me first." Mackenzie's voice gained a playful tone. Raven smiled and rolled her eyes slightly.

Aqualad took Artemis by the hand and moved out, understanding Raven's signal.

/

Don't forget to R&R!


	14. Chapter 14

"Found you." Raven looked at Mackenzie, as she flipped the phone closed. " _That was so 2002"_ She thought to herself.

Flashing a smile, the short man took her by the hand and led her down a long hallway, decorated with fancy statues, trophies and memorabilia of his successful life. She faked smile through all of it. When his arms hugged her hips in an awkward embrace, when he kept talking about how Tiger Woods was an old friend, even when he leaned in for an attempt of a kiss. She quietly repeated her mantra inside her head to keep herself together.

* * *

"I am worried about friend Raven, Robin." Starfire said looking at the hall were Raven and Mackenzie had just disappeared a moment ago.

"I think she knows what she's doing, Star." He reassured her. "She will be fine."

"May I?" A voice came from behind Robin, and Starfire's hand tensed around his neck. Turning around, a handsome, tall, young man smiled brightly at Starfire. But of all the men in the room, it just had to be him.

It just had to be Kurt Waters.

Robin cleared his throat and looked at her, trying to hide the low level if panic he felt, since this wasn't planned at all. Starfire winked and flashed a confident smile at him. He looked at Kurt's extended hand and smiled.

"Off course." Robin took a step back, leaving Star, and walked over to the water fountain, not without turning around watching Kurt place his hands on her hips. He flinched slightly and turned around, avoiding any eye contact, or just any contact with anyone whatsoever.

He reached Superboy talking with M'gann near the bar and stopped by them, his hands moved around nervously.

"Mind if I join?" He signaled the bartender for a drink. The mission had to take a pretty bad spin if Robin was up to breaking his own rules.

"Where's Star?" M'gann asked him.

"She made a friend." Robin said, looking at the pair dancing.

M'gann found Star dancing with a man slightly taller than her, talking innocently as the swayed softly.

"Who's that?" Superboy asked.

"Kurt Waters." Robin said as he gulped down a drink as soon as the bartender placed it on the counter.

The martian's hand fell over his.

"Hey. No drinking on the job young man." She said seriously. Robin couldn't help but crack a smile.

M'gann placed a supportive hand on his back. "Calm down, she will be ok, Robin."

"But, shouldn't he be looking over Mackenzie for the rest of the codes?" Superboy said.

"He probably wants to kill time..." Robin suggested. "Or just get under my nerves."

Robin pondered for a moment; his eyes became slits.

"Or get some information." Robin said looking at them.

"I don't think that's the case." Superboy commented. "Either way, if he's there we can keep a close eye on him, and he won't be able to run around hurting people, especially not Ethan or Craig."

Robin fiddled around with his fingers, impatiently.

"You're right." He said finally. "But still, I'll go keep a lookout on those two as well." He stood up and disappeared in between the people who were at the bar.

"I just hope this doesn't screw things up" Superboy said.

* * *

"Your significant other?" Kurt talked politely after breaking up a silence that had fallen upon them right after Starfire gave him a fake name, age and occupation. After all, there isn't a lot of conversation to do when you are dancing with someone that professionally kills people for a living. Starfire eyed him curiously

"Friend." She said simply, hiding a blush. Kurt nodded quickly pulling her closer, whispering in her ear

"Well, good for me."

She shuddered at the sudden closeness with the stranger and jerked back her head at his mischievous voice.

"You are pretty confident, aren't you?" She said rather annoyed. Nothing did the princess hate more than cockiness, and Kurt was full of it.

"I prefer the term "Anticipated." His grip became stronger on her hip and his smile become crooked.

"Do you often anticipate to things that aren't going to happen?" Her voice was serious now. She kept calm and decided to defend herself if any attack came. She was no damsel in distress.

"Baby…"Kurt tucked his hand into his pocket, freeing her hip for a moment, and pulled out a pointy compact knife. He pointed it towards her stomach; the metallic tip broke a thread on her dress. Then two, as it dug deeper into it. "I always find a way to make it happen."

Starfire didn't flinch at the contact with the knife. It had been enough with being wounded two times, she'd be glad to stop the third one. Keeping her head up, her eyes looked directly into his.

"You just follow me and no one gets hurt." He pushed the tip of the knife further into her abdomen.

"I do not think so." Starfire took the knife in her own hands quickly, dropping it to the ground. She made her way out of Kurt's firm grasp. Kurt took her by the wrist stopping her.

Starfire turned around; her expression was now full of fury, her eyes full of fire. She had defeated a world of tamaranean soldiers with no problem, but never had she found herself with a man so incredibly hateful as Kurt.' A man who grabs you as if he owns you was never a good sign' she had learned. When Kurt's grasp became stronger, she was instantly filled with blinding rage.

In a swift motion, she came back to Kurt, yanked her arm out of his grasp, and slapped him, causing commotion around the people who where dancing nearby. Kurt lowered his face in pain. Grabbing his cheek, he slowly raised his head, recuperating from the impact. His pores were starting to grow little dabs of blood, which transferred to his hand. He smiled and looked at Starfire into her eyes.

She never looked away.

"You asked for it." Kurt took a gun out of his belt and started firing toward Starfire. Starfire stopped the bullet with her metallic bracelet and ran against the group of people that had started scattering towards the exit, trying to Reach M'gann and Superboy.

"Get down!" Superboy said. M'gann crouched to the floor and Starfire found her shortyl, trying to catch Aqualad or Artemis, but neither of them were in sight now.

 _"Guys, we got the codes, get out of there now!" Cyborg's voice came over the intercom._

Starfire reached for Superboy's arm, taking him down to his level.

"We have to go now!" She said over the loud firing noises and screaming of the troubled people that made their way out of the room.

"What about..."

"They'll find their way out, let's move!" M'gann said. The three heroes ran through the doors, and noticed the firing noises following them. They came closer each time.

Robin walked out of the men's restroom when M'gann grabbed his arm and pulled him into the lobby.

"What's going on in there?!" He said as she ran in front of him, still holding his hand.

"Long story, no time!" She said in between breaths.

Kurt followed a long group of people who ran terrorized away from the party. When he caught sigh of Starfire, he started firing again.

The people in the lobby started scattering around, looking for cover.

Robin and M'gann stayed still, in the lookout for the rest of their teammates.

"You guys resting? Let's move!" Kid Flash ran by them, followed by Cyborg, Red Arrow and Robin.

Raven, Aqualad and Artemis were close behind fleeing the lobby as fast as they could. Kurt was already out the front door looking for his target. His excellent aim had slowly developed into a firing frenzy, hitting innocent citizens at random.

The rest of the team quickly escaped, camouflaging themselves as citizens as well, but not before Robin stayed behind to have a word with Kurt.

"Hey!" Robin called out. Kurt turned around quickly, trying to fire, but was found with a fast punch, delivered directly to his nose.

Like a kid who rang doorbells and then flees, Robin started running, and felt satisfied when he turned and saw the police picking up Kurt's dazed body from the floor. He quickly got into the limo where half of his team was, and sped back into the night.


	15. Chapter 15

India was mayhem.

Kurt's shoot out had killed around a dozen of prestigious people, but none of them were Eric or Craig, which relieved the titans, but still, it hurt to know that those people's death was by part their fault. Raven and Beast boy, had decided they were both mentally exhausted to actually think about what had happened, but there was always next morning. The outsider team had taken Aqualad's directions when he said they should get rest and boy, didn't they obey. Not an hour after they were inside, Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis were already sound asleep, while Aqualad, M'gann and Superboy where in the process to do the same as well.

They sheltered in the airplane that the city mayor had gave them for the trip, in the outskirts of the city. Although it wasn't a 5 star hotel, it was pretty big and comfortable enough for them, and it also covered their identities since no one actually got that far away from the city unless they were lost and wandering around the desert. By the time they got there it was already sunrise of the next day. The whole team kept silent, as if too tired to actually think. They knew better than to talk about what had happened. People had died, innocent people. They got the other part of the codes, yes, but a super heroes' mind can never be calm after watching such panic explode without being able to do anything about it. They were also sure it was all around the news, which is why both leaders, young and older Robin, decided to avoid media all together.

Robin noticed Starfire's tenseness, but decided not to push it. He figured he would ask her what had happened in there while he was absent later on. As soon as everyone got into the plane, He decided that was it for a day, and let both teams rest. He didn't need to speak a word when they were all walking around in their uniforms ready to sleep and ready if any emergency occurred over night. As some walked around, with tired mumbling being heard as they spoke to each other, others were already tucked in their "beds", that were made of two big and comfy airplane chairs. If they didn't all fit, the carpeted floor and some pillows would make a good bed for the night. Then Robin noticed other of Starfire's strange behavior. Instead of sitting on a chair, cover herself from the cold and fall asleep instantly, she left the plane, still wearing the dress that was slightly ripped by her abdomen. He decided to follow her outside, not sure of what he was getting himself into or if it was a good idea at all. After all this time, he still got nervous about opening up or listening to her open up. So much trust in between him and someone else wasn't something very usual but he was getting used to it, slowly but surely.

The cool breeze sang around the deserted territory making Robin shiver. He hugged himself, bringing his wool jacket closer to him. The outlines of buildings and buzzing of the city framed the horizon where the sun would be in very little time, rising in all its glory. He looked around until he found Starfire's, still black, but shiny, hair standing alone by the distance, curling in the air like it had life of its own.

As he walked closer he noticed that she was dead silent. No muttering, no talking, just shallow breaths, as if she was suffocating silently. He picked up his pace and slowed down once again appearing by her side. He turned to look at her and fell his heart sink down to his stomach in pure sadness and guilt.

Her face was washed up in tears, and she didn't bother in drying them away, which made them drip right down to her collarbones and neck. She held her head up high, sniffling softly, and noticed his presence, but ignored it.

"Star..." He croaked. He was at loss of words. Watching her cry helplessly, it broke his heart in pieces. He had never felt so weak, or so helpless about something.

"It's all my fault." Her voice was calm and sweet, as if ignoring the pain in her heart. She even smiled slightly. The irony of the whole situation brought up a very dark humor inside her.

Robin thought about it for a second. He still did not know what had happened in there, so there was much less that he could talk about. Still, he always knew the way to comfort her troubled heart.

He turned his body at her direction, facing her profile. "No it wasn't. Kurt is an assassin, that is what he does."

"If I hadn't made him mad then maybe those people would still be alive." She said calmly, looking at the horizon. "They did not deserve death."

"Starfire this wasn't your fault. You didn't pull the trigger." Robin said.

"Robin." She turned her face to look at him to the eye. "I was no good for this mission." She said.

Robin furrowed his brows in confusion.

"I could only stop one bullet." Her eyes lost their shine as she spoke. Robin could only listen. "The rest of them happened because of me."

"Whatever made you think like that?" He said dully. "None of that is true."

"Oh, but it is." Her voice kept calm, but still had the threat to crack at any second. "It was so hard to understand before but now I do. And it's the same reason why I was sold, because I did no good."

She looked at the ground and sobbed quietly and the next thing she knew, she was wrapped around Robin's arms crying into his chest. He couldn't see what else he could do to comfort her without messing up, but to hold her.

He kissed the top of her head and just held her as the cool breeze hugged them both. He felt her stiffen and fall silent after some time. He broke the embrace and looked down at her.

Dried tears were marked on her face, but somehow she still managed to look blindingly beautiful. Not even she couldn't hide the exhaustion. Under her eyes, mascara had started to build up, and the tears had washed away any trace of makeup.

"That is the biggest lie I've ever heard." Robin said. She smiled quietly, and looked at the ground, but after a second his hand pushed softly under her chin, making her eyes meet his. Leaning closer he held her head gingerly and kissed her with tenderness. He knew someone had seen them from the windows inside the aircraft, but didn't care. At that moment it was just he and Star. Nothing else mattered.

He felt her shudder at his touch and looked down at her with concerned eyes. Tears trickled down her cheeks and she sobbed quietly. He hugged her tight, as she buried her face into his chest and sobbed, letting everything out.

The long veil from her dress enveloped them both, as if they were one.

She broke apart suddenly and looked at Robin. Her emerald orbs shone with the light, still watery. She hesitated for some time, before actually speaking.

"Why are you doing this?" She said. Robin's lips curved up and he took hold of her hand.

"You deserve to know how important you are for the Titans.." he said, and bringing her hand up to his face he kissed it sweetly. "For me."

She smiled sweetly wrapping her arms around him.

Ever since she got to Earth, the one thing that she could never fully understand is human kindness, in it's purest form. Luckily, she had found that in every single Titan, and the opposite in the villains they fought, which made it easier for her to understand what was bad and what was good in human terms. She felt undeserving of all the love and care the titans had given her, but they just loved her, and that's it. No conditions. And they could never understand how grateful she was for it.

None of them noticed how much time they'd spent out, and neither of them cared. The tiredness didn't really matter now, and they only got back to sleep after the first hint of sunlight was close to appear. They scurried silently into the airplane and joined their friends in slumber.


	16. Chapter 16

A crack of sunlight peeked through the semi transparent curtain that draped the rectangular windows of the airplane. There were faint sounds in the distance; although Beast boy couldn't make anything out this early he was sure everyone was awake except for him. His seat in the airplane gave him a severe back pain; so he decided to morph into a puppy and cuddle with the blankets just to be comfortable for the night, and boy did it work, he felt all charged up. Opening one eye, the tiny green puppy sat and scratched an ear, yawning in the cutest way. M'gann poked her head out from the tiny kitchen that was equipped inside the aircraft , a marble board with a dishwasher and a sink. He could see Superboy, Robin, Kaldur and Artemis sitting in four chairs that faced each other, each of them manipulating electronic devices and highly concentrated. Morphing back into his human form he gave a smile to M'gann who still was in awe about his rapid transformation.

"Good Morning!" She said gleefully, offering a plate where scrambled eggs and bread loaf were served. Beast boy looked down at the plate and tried to hide his disgust, failing big time.

"Is something…wrong?" She asked confused.

"Wally will eat it, Beast boy." The titan leader said, not looking away from his work.

"Don't mind if I do." In a flash of red and yellow, the plate was being emptied and in less tan a minute a speedster with a satisfied smile stood by its side.

Superboy put his attention to the scene unfolding in front of him. Raising an eyebrow, he lowered his electronic device.

"Are you a vegetarian?" He suggested. Beast boy turned to him and shrugged.

"Naturally. Once you are most of the animals on earth, your point of view changes a bit." He commented casually as he plopped down on the floor, sitting Indian style. He did a quick head count, and looked around for some time. After a couple of minutes, he spoke up again.

"Where are Raven, Star, Red Arrow and the younger you?" He asked. This time, Robin looked up from his pad and produced a giant hologram of a city map with four red blinking dots sprawled near two blinking blue dots with a flick of his arm.

"Kurt's and Ethan's chips were activated about half an hour ago near the busiest sector of the city. Right now, it's crucial for us to follow their every move. They went to search for them immediately." He said looking at the hologram.

"Man, why do I always wake up when the fun things happened already" Beast boy said.

"It's almost an hour since they're gone, isn't it weird that we don't have any updates yet?" Artemis said.

As if he had heard, a voice came through Artemis' laptop. It was Red Arrow. "We uh, have a complication here." He said. Immediately after he said this, two red dots in the map disappeared.

"I guess you noticed by now…" He said panting heavily.

"What happened?" Robin asked alarmed, his mask almost turning into two circles.

"Kurt's men caught Raven, and me off guard. I have no idea how they are so well trained, but there is something weird about them. Ethan knocked Starfire unconscious, Robin decided to split to follow him." He explained. "We need backup."

"Off course you do." Artemis was getting ready, packing new arrows in her quiver and picking up her bow.

"I'll send the coordinates, try to get here as fast as possible without catching anyone's attention. It's a huge warehouse, but it's pitch black in here, so I don't know where Robin and Ethan might be." Red Arrow said

"Stay put, we'll be there as son as possible." Robin said switching off the hologram. He looked at Beast boy.

"Beast boy, wake Cyborg up from charging. We're all going." He said. Beast boy walked to Cyborg's mobile station and started tapping buttons and moving wires. It was a good idea after all to teach him how to use Cyborg's machinery for useful stuff.

"Whoa, whoa wait Boy Wonder." Kid Flash sidestepped him, blocking his way.

"What?" Robin flinched slightly at the name, but kept his cool.

"What if we're walking right into a trap, just like the last time?" Wally said concerned.

Aqualad and Superboy looked at Robin waiting for an answer.

"Be completely sure that it's a trap. But four of us are in danger, and it's a risk we have to take." He moved to the frame of the control room's entrance. "Besides…" He put his gloves on and smiled. "I have a plan."

* * *

Let's just see how that plan goes.

Don't forget to R&R! Thanks for all the follows and reads, I really do appreciate it very much!


	17. Chapter 17

I think this is the longest chapter until now, phew!

I definitely spent time editing it so that every detail would fall into place.

Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Robin had a plan, yes. But they were certain things he wasn't sure of. For instance, he had no idea how they knocked Starfire out. Of all their missions, the villains in Jump City learned that there are hard things to achieve, and then there's trying to knockout a Tamarenean.

Starfire's body was made for battle, Tamareneans are a warrior race after all. Born to perdure through the hardest environments and adapt to the worst places. He knew Kurt had investigated, or rather, gotten information about his team, that is the only way he could have found out a way to do it.

Then there was the, 'caught Raven' issue. Just how did that happen? He wasn't sure if Kurt's men outnumbered them, or how trained they were. Either way, two of his teammates and two others from a different dimension, were in trouble, and no one was going to get away with that. The teenage superheroes decided to blend in, though it would be a bit hard in a place like India, one of the teams already had stealth mode activated, turning all their clothes black, while the remaining titans were forced to wear black civilian clothes, just to prevent any attention calling towards them. They had enough attention on them the night before.

The electronics that the heroes had were equipped with technology that managed to get near the correct coordinates, but not strictly above them. They had to make their way through the crowd, until they reached the warehouse were Kurt's men and Ethan were last located, and also where Starfire's and Raven's location were lost. There was no psychic contact either, so Robin guessed they were both unconscious. Red Arrow and his younger self were still nearby, looking over, and waiting for them, so now it was time to act.

The sector of the city where the coordinates were located was the end of four of India's busiest streets, making it a central round point of dusty streets and product selling market where people were constantly walking around. The warehouse was at the far end of one of those streets, like one of those dark alleys you see in the cities at night that looks extremely dangerous, where it seemed that every citizen knew that they didn't have to step further into those sides of the city.

"Miss Martian, link us up." Kaldur said through the communicator. He was walking through one of the streets that culminated in the round point, along with Artemis. They didn't mind keeping their voice down, since it seemed India was the loudest today.

" _Done"_ Her voice was heard ringing through everyone's heads.

Surprised, Beast boy's head shot up from eyeing the floor and looked at Robin.

"DUDE! THERE'S A VOICE IN MY HEAD!" He said, his mouth agape. Robin cracked a smile, but disappeared immediately.

"That's what happens when psychic links are made." He commented.

"Echo…Echo…ECHO!" He hollered loudly in his mind, making Artemis flinch.

"And I thought Wally was bad." She thought.

"HEY!" Wally and Beast boy matched their voices as one.

"Listen carefully, this is how we'll get in…"

* * *

She could listen to her heartbeat in her ears. It was a strong pounding inside her head that made it almost imposible to stand, and made her feel like her skull would crack open anytime. Slowly she opened up an eye.

 _Ouch_.

Her eyelids felt heavy on her, like she was under the effect of a drug or sleeping pill, and the pain was unbereable. No limbs did she feel, not her legs, not her arms, not her fingertips. Concentrating, she managed to wiggle her fingertips slightly, then moving her arm slowly and crossing it over her body, with her torso following. Her hand fell limp to her opposite side and pressed down for support, sending a shot of pain up her arms. She hissed silently at the pain but kept pushing until half of her body was sitting up, and then fell down again and the pain was felt a hundred times worse. Lying on her side, shre breathed quick shallow breaths.

A sharp pain was felt on her back as a boot collided with her spine. A cry of pain escaped her mouth and she shuddered. Her still dark black hair, short in length, covered her eyes but she managed to push it way with a breath. Sweatdrops raced down her forehead and the pain lingered. She didn't turn her head, but a hand grabbed on her chin and sat her up abruptly pushing her two lips together. She looked into the eyes of her torturer. Grey orbs stared back at her, a malicious stare and raised eyebrows met her orbs and she shivered from the unwanted touch.

"Good Morning Sunshine." He pushed his hand off her chin, slapping her and making her head turn in pain. Her hand traced with delicate touch the place where his hand had collided with her cheek. She was now sitting up, and looking down to her thighs, she was thankful she was still in uniform, and cape. Now she knew, nothing tragic had happened.

She looked around. Taking in her surroundings. The house was badly kept, wooden walls covered with dirt and old furniture with a thick coat of dust littered the room. The roof was extremely tall, so she imagined there was more than just one floor. It rose up to the sky with a pointy end that was made in old wooden stalls and rafters that looked ready to brake any moment.

Kurt circled her as she kept looking. The place was steaming hot, there was no ventilation whatsoever. All the sound that was heard were her shallow breaths. And then a blood crurling scream that sent shivers up her spine, followed by his low and sick chuckle. Regaining the power she wasn't sure she had, she stood up and pushed him against the wall, raising a dark ball of energy to his face with dark eyes staring dangerously at him. Pain bolted through her arms, as her body was half asleep, or so she guessed. But right now, she didn't care about it.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Receiving a smile for an answer she took him by his collar and pushed him away from the wall, then pushing him harder into it, breaking cracks into the wooden walls. He closed one eye in pain, but kept his sick smile.

"Where is she?" She said in a lower voice, but with more rage than before.

"That's not important." He said. Her hold on him tightened. Starfire's scream still echoed in her mind, as she tried to make phsycic contact with someone, anyone, who could help.

"You have no sense of humour." He said with a dark grin as she came back from her 5 second trance. Her eyes narrowed and she hovered off the ground, still holding his collar. He reyes filled with darkness. He looked down in horror and started kicking his feet.

"Let me down, child!" He said, his voice breaking inevitably.

Raven smiled for the first time.

 _"Raven, are you there?"_ A soft voice entered her mind and she breathed out in relief. Envolving Kurt into black energy and leaving him floating, she lowered herself to the floor, falling once again when she failed to have the enrgy to stand on her feet.

"Hey, put me down this instant!" He kicked in the ball, trying to break free.

She ignored his complaints and decided to concentrate on M'gann's voice.

 _"I'm here."_ She said, cursing herself when her voice came out as a weak whimper. She lay down and her right cheek touched the dirty floor. Not that she cared about it anyway, it was the only position she could handle being in at the momento.

 _"Thank Mars. Do you have any idea where you are?"_ She asked.

Raven turned to look at Kurt, who was still kicking aimlessly trying to get down.

 _"I suppose it's the first level. No windows, no doors. At least, not at simple view."_

Her vision was still quite blurry, but such details were easy to decipher.

 _"Stand by, we're on our way."_ M'gann said.

 _"Wait! Don't go!"_ Raven stopped her before she closed the link. M'gann stood by, waiting for whatever Raven had to say.

 _"I'll distract him. Get to Starfire she's in trouble."_ She said.

 _"But there's no phsyicic link, how am I supposed to find her? "_

Another scream was heard throughout the house, judging by the silence, Raven understood M'gann and anyone near her had heard it. Raven shivered. She could feel her teammate's pain, and the black energy surrounding Kurt flickered for a moment.

 _"We'll split up."_ Was all M'gann said, before falling silent. _"You are badly hurt."_ She said matter of factly, breaking the uneasy silence. Raven nodded, knowing M'gann couldn't see but somehow felt her agreeing.

" _I know. But please, just get someone to her quickly."_ Raven begged.

Wally looked at M'gann waiting for a signal to move. When she nodded her head, he took out his stealth mode black googles and sped off to the second floor, checking every room quickly while M'gann scanned the first level with her eyes for any doors or entrances, taking into account what Raven had said. She noticed a tiny gap in between two walls and walking nearer she saw Raven's silhouette through the wooden gap. Frowning while deep in thought, she found Wally by her side once again.

"Wally, I need you to find Conner, and go help Star. Tell Cyborg I need him down here immediately." She said, not taking her eyes away from Raven or from Kurt.

"Got it." Wally sped off again and in a matter of seconds Cyborg appeared by her side, followed by a struck of wind, due to Wally's exit.

"Found her." She pulled back her head so Cyborg could peek at the gap in between the wooden walls.

"I say we get in there and kick some bad guy butt." He cracked his knuckles and his neck, making popping sounds. "Maybe we can get some information out of him too."

M'gann smiled to herself. Something about Cyborg made her feel comfortable, safe. His humour towards these things sometimes was he only thing that kept his team sane. She knew there was no way something could go wrong, for now, and kept the thought while Cyborg brought down the door with an unneccesary war cry.

* * *

Starfire felt a scream slip away from her mouth from the pain. Cursing herself she made her mouth close shut and closed her eyes tightly, ignoring the sick smile watching her. Her hands were chained together, as were her feet, leaving her no way of breaking free, not even with the little strenght left within her. The worse thing that could happen to her before this was her metallic chromium allergy, and after that Robin took measures to make sure no other allergy to chemical compunds would get in the way of hers o her teams safety. Luckily, there weren't anymore. But something he didn't know is that this wasn't only and allergy. If being miles away from it could cause an explosion of power in the form of a cough, being near it could cause much more damage. Or worse, it being inside her.

Tamereneans had a very well hidden weakness and this was it. They covered it up with allergies and just zero tolleration to be near the chromium, but few people knew what was really going on when they added a tameranian to the equation. For example, Ethan.

He had somehow found a way to get metallic chromium in a liquid form, an acid-like liquid, and had also known about he way it affected her people. Pumping the liquid through her blood was all he did, and it affected her inmediately, causing an unbearable pain within her. For her, it was the equivalent of fire running through her veins, replacing all the blood in her body, and the random electrical currents that Ethan sent didn't help at all. She was slowly loosing her power, not to mention, life itself was loosening grip on her.

Panting heavily and lying sideways she felt a hand tuck away a strand of hair that covered her gashed face with his infamous long nail. Ethan smiled in an evil manner. She closed her eyes again, ignoring him.

"What is it? Aren't you having fun?" He said. He stood up and let the strand of hair fall over her face again. Reaching his men, he barked orders to them, but she wasn't able to make out any words. Her mind was being clouded by darkness very quickly, but she kept herself awake. There was no way she was going to die during this mission, or during any mission of that matter. Sweat quickly started dropping from her forehead, and her head felt burning hot. She was able to hear some commotion near her, and some feet near as well, but since her head was positioned to look at the floor, she really couldn't tell anything about it.

She made out two more pairs of black boots that seemed to be attacking others using the little visión of her surroundings that she had, and then the bodies of the men going limp on the floor. Then, Ethan's handsome face fell beside her, eyes closed, seemingly unconscious. She jumped at the sudden closeness of his torturer and crawled away, but only got to move little distance, giving up when she felt the pain that moving brought to her body. A pair of black boots came near her, and her handcuffs broke, then her feet broke free and she was able to lie on her back, making out Conner's blurry face. She sighed relieved, but her relief died down when she saw the expression of horror on his face. Did she look THAT bad?

"Kid! Block the doors!" He said, holding her head carefully to inspect for any gashes. As he did, her body convulsed, and she let out a loud scream. The electric shocks were still running wild. Superboy guessed that Ethan had put some kind of electronic device over her body, that controlled the electricity supply on her.

Superboy's eyes widened in horror as she uncontrollably shook, her hands grabbed onto his arms, looking for support. He quickly searched her arms, neck and legs for a chip, a button, or just anything that might be controlling the pain. Behind her right ear, he found a blinking gadget, tiny as a grain of rice. He took it in his hand and pulled it out, and the pain stopped. The metallic chromium was dissolved and the electricity gone, making her skin appear with her normal tan color and her eyes bright again. Her grip on his arm softened, and it fell limp.

Tears had started to esacpe her eyes, thanks to the unnatural pain she felt. She kept her eyes closed as she tried to breathe.

Wally crouched down and helped her sit up with Superboy's help, he grabbed her face, inspecting her gashes and wounds. "Are you okay?"

The only response he got were batted breaths, and a little nod with her eyes still closed. Wally seemed relieved, as did Superboy, but they both were uncertain if she would be able to keep up a fight in her state. He reyes slowly opened for two seconds, only for Superboy to see how their normal shine and glow were gone once again, replaced with a dark hue to them, and heavy eyelids. Superboy told Wally to keep an eye on her while he tried to reach Robin. Wally crouched beside her, and her head fell limp on his chest, still trying to recover her breath. Her skin felt cold, extremely cold. He felt the top of her head and it was dangerously hot. He couldn't bring himself to understand how she could handle two different extreme temperatures at the same time. He examined her face closely; it was dirty, her right eyebrow had a nasty gash over it, her lip was broken, and there were several superficial cuts as well. He also saw signs of dry tears over her cheeks.

" _Robin? You there?"_

* * *

Raven let Kurt fall down to the floor as M'gann knocked him out.

She was still on the floor, fighting to regain her conciousness.

"Rae, you okay?" Cyborg slipped his arm under her cape and took hold of her waist, trying to pick her up.

Her head pounded heavily, and her legs gave out again.

"Fuck" She cursed silently.

"Language young lady." Cyborg said as he tried once again to pick her up. He caught a glance at herr face and his relieved smile dissapeared. "They are going to pay for this." He said seriously, looking at the black eye that invaded Raven's left eyelid.

* * *

" _I'm here. Cyborg told me they found Raven, they're helping her. They're on their way to help you guys out. How's Star?"_ Robin responded.

Superboy turned his head to take a look. Starfire was trying to breathe normally with Wally's help, and couldn't yet hold herself up on her own. Looking around even more, Ethan and his men were still unconsious.

" _Ethan thought it would be funny messing with her. He and his men are blacked out. Wally is taking care of her."_

Superboy heard an uneasy silence at first. _"I'll be there as soon as I can. Beast boy and I are on the third level. Search them and try to find any more information you can, Robin out."_

Superboy turned to Wally and Starfire again informing them what Robin had said. Wally inmediately sped off to Ethan's men and himself, gathering anything that could help. Star lay on the ground, her body shaking.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Superboy sat beside her, holding her head closer to his chest, and sitting her up once again. Her breathing was still short and batted.

Her busted lip curved up in a smile, and as her skin regained color, her eyes shone a bit. "Do not worry." She said between breathes.

Superboy found himself smiling and nodding to welcome her, but still had some worry drawn upon his face. Wally appeared by his side with various items in his hands.

"Hand written adresses and weapons." He said matter of factly.

Starfire took a glance at them and shuddered for a moment when she saw the origin of the chromium being held by him.

"That miserable creature." She whispered through her breaths, looking at Ethan's unconscious body.

M'gann and Cyborg entered. Raven was still being helped by the young teen and kept her head bowed. Looking at the unconscious men they figured they'd taken care of it pretty well.

Right after their entrance, both Robin's, Beast boy and Red Arrow came inside as well. Robin held Raven's chin and pushed her head up slightly. She kept her eyes looking down in pain, so that he could see her injury. He looked at Cyborg, who was still helping her up. Both of them kept a stern expression, trying to hide their rage.

"How do you feel?" Robin hated asking this question, only because it was something he asked specifically when his teammates were in a really bad state.

"Been better." Raven said, keeping her eyes on the floor, her hood over her face.

"Raven, look at me."

Her purple orbs looked directly at his mask, as he tried to find any warning signs based on them. Thankfully he didn't. Her eyes were definitely tired, but he breathed in relief when he saw no sign of bleeding or strange movement.

"I'll be ok." She said, narrowing them a bit. Robin nodded.

"Raven!" Beast boy sped to her side, inspecting her eyes as well, helping her up so that Cyborg could do a quick scan around the room.

Kaldur, the younger Robin and Red Arrow dispersed to gather any info still left around the room or Ethan's men.

Robin looked to his right and his blood started boiling.

Superboy was holding Star's head close to his chest to help her to breathe normally. The sight of her state made him move quickly to where she was crouching by her side as well.

He felt her neck extremely cold, and then he felt the top of her head extremely hot. She was still having trouble breathing, and her open wounds bled slowly, as she slipped into unconsciosness.

"What in hell did those bastards do" He said with anger in a low voice, feeling her pulse.

"They replaced her blood with something, I do not know what might have caused such a violent reaction." Superboy said. "Robin, we're lucky we got here in time, she was already letting go…"

Robin's masked eyes looked up to him and narrowed. He lowered his head closer to her face, speaking in whispers loud enough for Superboy to hear.

"Star, can you hear me?"

No response, she had blacked out once again.

"Her pulse is weak, and Raven is badly hurt as well. We need to leave this place now." Robin raised his head and stood up. His head spinning with anger.

Before anyone could say a word, Artemis' voice ringed through their heads.

" _Robin, I think we might've found something that might interest you."_

" _What was that?"_ He said emotionless.

" _We found the files were these two kept the information…we've been following the wrong pair."_


	18. Chapter 18

Starfire and Raven's state made the team rent a room in a hotel for a few hours. Well, not rent it, if renting means getting inside from the roof and locking the doors.

Raven seemed ok, until she had blacked out of nowhere while the team fled the warehouse. Beast boy panicked for a moment, but calmed down when he felt her pulse. He had never seen her this hurt. Cyborg's scan revealed that Kurt had drained a lot of her energy with unknown purposes. Starfire could barely keep herself together. After Robin saw what Ethan had done, everyone could sense that he was already plotting his revenge inside his head. He silently took her into his arms, and held her the entire ride to the hotel, checking her breathing every once in a while. He kept silent and serious, and the rest of them did as well.

Cyborg carried an emergency first aid kit within him, to which he immediately hooked up Raven and Star as soon as they reached the room. A couple of Iv's, monitors connected to his central system, so he could read their pulse the moment they dropped or rise, and bandaged for superficial stuff. Robin bandaged Star's wounds as Beast boy gently applied some cream around Ravens' eye. M'gann put Star's hair up into a ponytail and grabbed some baggy clothes for her and Raven to get rid o their bloody and dirty uniforms. She and Artemis helped change them while Robin decided to let it go for a moment and concentrate on the information that was won.

"What did you mean with 'the wrong pair'?" The older Robin sat on a chair near the room's door, looking at Aqualad.

"The wrong pair, right now." Aqualad said.

Wally crossed his arms. "Mind to make yourself clear?"

Artemis sighed and walked forward from Star's bed.

"We found Ethan's and Kurt's files. Everything from their birthdate to the people they are working with is here, even the India shootout. We took them and completed them with the addresses you found in Kurt's men's gear. We found out that those locations were family homes, where murders had taken place recently, or at least, that's what the police thinks."

"Ethan moved everything to make it look like a murder, but really, those people are still alive, but being kept as hostages for Slade's purpose." Aqualad said.

"What does Kurt have to do in all of this then?" Beast boy asked from his spot on a leather couch.

"Ethan is working for Slade, Kurt is working for Ethan and all three of them have the same target: Craig and Eric." Aqualad answered. "Although, we are starting to think that Craig and Eric have something else with both Kurt and Ethan. Something more personal."

"So… we are back to square one, then?" Superboy said dully.

"Not exactly." Artemis said. "It seems as if this Red X guy is the one that controls wherever Ethan and Kurt go, what they do, and who they attack. He somehow gained Slade's trust and now makes big part of the scheme."

Red X had turned out pretty unexpected, but Artemis had been able to find his name in the files, describing the connection he had with this whole plan.

Red Arrow looked at the wounded Raven. "So that means that if we finish with this X guy…"

"So X, did this." Robin interrupted Red Arrow. The room fell silent before Artemis spoke again bravely.

"Yes, he sent Kurt and Ethan to the warehouse."

Robin nodded, his face still emotionless. He stood up and paced for some seconds.

"Well, if we finish with X, it means that their scheme will be flawed, and we will have some time to bring them all down and save the hostages." Robin said looking at the floor in deep thought, as if he were alone, in his room, back in the days where he chased Slade for endless nights.

"That's exactly what we'll do." He said, glancing at the wounded girls resting in bed.

The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. The only way Robin's rage could be more evident would be If it were physically possible to have smoke come out of your ears.

"I'm guessing we're going back to Jump City?" Cyborg said finally.

"You guessed right. Cy, as soon as we get to the plane I need you to prepare everything for lift off." Robin looked at a clock hanging on the wall. "I think we should let them rest for a couple of hours before we leave. I don't want to risk it by moving them around like that."

The only good thing about Robin's rage, is that it had developed in such a way, that it made him look at things clearer. Everybody in the room wanted to slice Red X's head off, and murder Ethan and Kurt for what they had done, but it was like a curtain of smoke dissipating, and it helped the leader make wise choices about what to do and what not to do at the moment. Not guided by emotion, but by logic.

"You got it Captain." Cyborg said, standing up to replace the Iv's. The rest of them started pouring the information out, so that each and every one of them knew exactly who Ethan and Kurt were and draw conclusions to what might happen next.

Before the night fell over the city, and the wounded heroes had received proper medical attention, both teams made an invisible escape from the hotel room back to the airplane. The girls had started to regain consciousness. Star had an oxygen mask on, since her breathing was still finding difficulty to regulate, and Raven had tried to open her eyes, but the pain was still lingering, so she kept both her eyes closed, instead of opening her good eye. Liftoff had taken place an hour after they arrived back to the plane. Cyborg made sure to notify the owner of the aircraft and both airport towers of their departure and soon enough they were on their way to Jump City. A little time into the trip, Raven started opening both eyes without problem and Star tossed her oxygen mask away, but kept themselves in a reclined position on two airplane seats. They were informed about everything that had been talked about in the hotel room. Pushing away their torture to the back of their heads for a moment, they mentally prepared themselves for what was to come. Nevertheless, there was always that thirst for vengeance, even if it was just a little bit, stinging at their chest.

They couldn't stay at the tower; nobody could find out they were back in town. Media would've gone crazy and Slade would find out somehow. Robin knew he would find out later on, but he thought it would buy them some time. They'd stayed undercover, in a small hotel in the outskirts of town. The reception was ran by an old man, that didn't even look up at Beast boy when he checked in for both teams and let a silver key fall on his hand with no hesitation.

The penthouse was on the last level of the building, the fifth one, to be exact. Robin was relieved inside to know that there were several beds and sofas for everyone to sleep on. Right now, the last thing he needed was to catch one of the guys messing around in the middle of the night, or vice versa. They had only one hour to get ready, split up, and hit the streets in look of what was behind the handwritten addresses that they found. The names of the people who lived there had been scribbled out, but Cyborg knew that with a little bit of his tech, he could find out what the last names where.

The first group, Wally, Artemis, and Aqualad went to the north of the city, where the industrial zone was still awake. The address was set across the famous Elm Street, where a road of buildings stood up, full of establishments, drug stores and so on. Some of these buildings had apartments on their second levels, so they knew their search was narrowed down to a smaller number of buildings, making the search easier.

Superboy, M'gann and the older Robin went South, to the zone that was near the bay. Their search had to start at Lake Hill neighborhood, since those were the only buildings were people lived. The bay area was almost deserted, used more for food establishments and tourism that didn't include any hotels surprisingly.

Starfire, Raven and Beast boy went to the East, towards Oak Park neighborhood, more commonly known as one of the richest in town.

Red Arrow, Cyborg and the younger Robin went towards the west of the city, more specifically Brannan Street, where they named it the dangerous red zone of town. Full of bars, strip clubs, and if the rumors were believed, where most of the illegally sold drugs in the city were found. The prisons weren't, as far away, which didn't make the place anymore safer. There were some old homes spread around, that blended in the line of alcohol selling establishments and improvised kickboxing rings.

And so the search started. Little did they know, pair of masked eyes was watching their every move, and they knew another way to take their minds off the search.

Robin opened the door silently. The house seemed abandoned from an outer view, and he wasn't surprised it was. Leftover yellow "Do not cross" tape was scattered around the porch, and some of it littered the inside of the house. He poked his head inside of the house. Pitch black. Reaching the Wall in search of a switch, he found a cold plastic bump and pressed it gently. A single light over his head turned on, spraying a white glow over the main room, where he could see a long flight of stairs in front of him. He went in completely and saw M'gann and Superboy close behind. The cold air from the beach entered from a broken window and hit M'gann. She shivered and looked outside. The street was deserted. No pedestrians, no pets running around. Nothing.

"Search upstairs, I'll see if there's anything down here." Robin said.

Superboy followed M'gann upstairs and looked for a light switch once he was in the hall. A single light bulb stood over their heads and flickered, giving light to a long hallway, decorated with once white wallpaper. It reminded him of one of those horror movies he had seen one night because of Wally's several insisting. He remembered the hall and two little girls holding hands at the end of it, offering a game. He also remembers how M'gann had grabbed on his arm one time during he movie, unconsciously off course. Her hands were incredibly soft, and though he made no reaction, he knew the closeness made him happy. She made him happy and…

Wait…

Shaking off the memories he blinked twice and found himself alone in the hallway. Then he saw her head poking out of one of the rooms, her red hair cascading behind it.

"Are you ok?" She asked innocently.

He tried to hide a smile. "Y-yes."

Shrugging, she went back into the room, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

Superboy opened one of the doors at the far end of the hall and started looking for something, anything that kept his mind busy. He felt strange. Memories like those didn't just fly into his head like that. Stupid smiles never appeared over his lips when M'gann talked to him before. Did they?

"Superboy look!" Her hands grabbed a paper on the floor. It was a handwritten letter he had discarded while in his trance. He stood up clumsily, knocking a pile of cardboard boxes over and sped to her side to read it.

"Um.…"

"I'm fine." He lied. "What does it say?"

She scanned the letter carefully, trying to read the handwriting as best as she could.

 _To whoever it may concern._

 _He's not here. We don't know where he is anymore, and if we have to live with all if the happy memories we had before he was taken, we will. Just know something, he will find his way back, once all of this madness ends. We won't be back; this house holds too many obscure memories. The only thing we know for sure is that he is still alive, and will be when this stops._

There was no name signed at the end of it, or nothing else written.

"Do you think they know it was all a lie? It sounds like the hostages family wrote this" M'gann said. Superboy said nothing, something else was taking over him and he was trying to control it. "But if they knew, why wouldn't they tell the police about it? Maybe they knew something bad would happen if they did?" She waited for a word, a response, anything. When she got silence she looked up to a pair of blue eyes, extremely close to hers.

"S-superboy? What are you doing?" She said in a whisper.

He stayed silent, but not still. Instead, he moved forward, leaning closer and closing his eyes. His thoughts faded for a moment when he saw her doing the same and after some second their lips crashed together.


	19. Chapter 19

The buzzing of the city was unceasing and loud. Office buildings switched to their nights shifts and drugstores opened while others closed. Either way there were still a large number of suitcases and ties walking around the streets. High heels clicked, cellphones rang and people went about on their business, not minding the three undercover heroes walking the opposite direction. Elm Street was just around the corner and the people seemed to be disappearing slowly. The thousands of office workers seemed to be reduced to hundreds and then finally just a few, where a bit of casual dressed people could be seen. Elm Street opened up with a large line of office buildings on the right side of the pavement, where the night shifts had already started, and a line of drugstores, grocery shops and one or two gyms that were awake all night. They took the left side, walking silently into each drugstore and checking the addresses.

"This is it?" Wally took the paper from Aqualad's hand and looked to the store, then back to the paper.

"Positive." Aqualad walked to the rusty gates that separated the counter from the outside.

The drugstore seemed to be deserted. The lights were flickering as if they were damaged and the counter was left alone.

"Hello?" Artemis called out. The only response was an old radio, sitting by the counter, whose old appearance gave the whole place a much eerie feeling.

Aqualad picked the gated lock with his hand and it broke easily, thanks to its rustiness.

"Well there's no one home" Wally jumped over the counter. "I don't think nobody would mind if we went inside."

Artemis looked at Aqualad as he thought. With a nod he followed Wally and Artemis did as well, to the back of the store.

A backdoor was half open with a light bulb hanging from a string, the only source of light over the large flight of stairs behind it. On the top of it, stood a white door completely closed.

"Eyes open." Aqualad said as he started up the stairs. Wally took a last look inside the drugstore before closing the door behind him and following his teammates. Aqualad opened the door on the top of the stairs and pushed his head into the darkness of the room, giving the signal for his teammates to come inside as well. Artemis flicked on a light switch and a fluorescent light bulb lighted the whole living room.

It was nothing fancy. A couple of brown sofas, with paintings hanging above them, and a rug spread in between the furniture. There was a huge window that acted as a wall and a backdrop to the whole living room. To the right, there was a large wooden door, probably the kitchen, and beside it a black door. To the left, there was a long hall.

"I will search to the right. You can split up into the hall's rooms." Aqualad whispered silently.

"Nice way to keep me out of the kitchen." Wally said taking of his jacket and throwing it on one of he sofas. He went inside the hall with Artemis close behind. The ceiling lights turned on as they walked through it, and when he felt her get into the first room he found the second door's handle and pushed it open. The light from outside shone over a messy bed and broken glass on the floor. He furrowed his brows in confusion. Pushing a light switch button on he looked around the room. It was a complete mess.

The closet doors were broken, and the clothes hanging inside of it were ripped and hanging by just threads, as if someone had pulled down on them. The nightstand table held the source of broken glass, which was a blue frame with a picture inside of it facing down. Carefully Wally took the picture by its corners and let the broken glass pieces fall down on the wooden surface. Shaking the picture clean from any glass he looked at it.

It was Craig, with another person. Wally deduced that it was his friend, judging by the way they both held thumbs up with a bright smile. A smile crept on his face too. He knew that smile, it always came out when his heart was warm and he felt overwhelmed by the feeling of seeing someone else's happiness. But the smile didn't last long; because he actually knew how much danger he was in. He sighed and placed the picture into his pocket, just for Robin to see it. With him being the refugee of the world's best detective he could deduce something else tan the fact that the man in the picture was Craig's friend. Heck, Wally knew he could find out what he had for breakfast that same morning, with a calorie count and all. He started turning around when a voice made him jump. He looked to the left side of the room, then to the right. He was the only one there.

He heard some static and then a voice once again. Following his senses, he walked to where he thought it came from. Thrown by a corner of the bed he saw a faint flickering red light. Reaching for it he took the device in his hands. It was a small walkie-talkie, left by some idiot that captured Craig's friend. He couldn't make out what the person talking was saying, so he tried his best in focusing in the pronunciation.

 _The kids…_

Static took over the voice.

 _Over…. There?_

He blinked twice trying to make out some more words.

 _Now…how?_

What where they saying?

"Hey."

"GAAAAH!" Wally fell to the floor and the walkie-talkie fell down beside him, static taking over completely. He grunted when he felt broken glass under his back, and struggled to get up.

"You're supposed to be searching for clues, not playing detective." She crossed her arms over her chest.

"What?!" He stood up defensively. "As far as I know I was doing excellent until you came and broke my concentration." He stood up and shook his shirt from the tiny debris., then crouched down once again to reach for the walkie-talkie which was reproducing a bunch of static. "I was trying to listen to the goons who did this and you ruined it." He said holding it up.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Sarcasm was dripping off her words. Her eyes became slits.

"Why don't we just find Aqualad and get out of here. We found what we needed, now let's go." He walked past Artemis, fuming.

"How are you so sure there's no tracking device on that thing." She turned to him, facing his back. "With your luck we might as well be leaving with the cause of our deaths, and the titans' as well."

"We will find out if it does when we find Robin." He kept his back facing to her, then turned to look for her eyes. "And what's 'with your luck' supposed to mean?" His head started to fill with rage.

"Whatever you want it to mean, Wally." She said roughly.

"What has gotten into you?" He said confused.

"Maybe I'm just a little skeptical about leaving with a device you've never seen before and aren't sure about its source." She walked to him until she had to look up to him to speak. "Is that a crime?"

"It is when you blame others for your skepticism." Wally mentioned, with a barely audible voice. Artemis held out her hand, waiting for Wally to pass her the walkie -talkie for inspection. Wally dropped it on her hand without breaking eye contact.

"I know. I'm the bad one in this team." She said, her eyes narrowed.

"I never said that." Wally hesitated a bit before speaking.

" You don't have to say it." Artemis menacing eyes opened up, as she started to walk away.

"Artemis…" He grabbed her arm, and she shook it off.

"Stop it. Let's just leave now before someone gets here."

He took her arm to stop her movement once again.

"Wally, let go." She turned her head to look at him.

"The place is abandoned, that excuse to leave sucks." He said.

"I don't care what you think, I'm getting Aqualad and we're leaving now." She took the hand that grabbed her arm in hers and squeezed it. " If anyone finds us here you'll be sorry for ever thinking that taking the walkie-talkie with you was…"

Before Artemis could finish she felt two strong hands grab onto her arms, and a pair of lips on hers. The shock invaded her, but something else did as well. She found herself responding, by relaxing her tense arms and neck and slipping her hands onto his chest, as if ready to push him away, but she couldn't. The caress of his lips was soft against hers and she found herself shuddering once because of his touch.

"Don't" She whispered in a low moan in between kisses, but kept the contact. She knew it was almost impossible for her to push away. It was as if something else was controlling her.

"Shh," Wally responded. He grabbed her face, digging his fingers in her hair below her ponytail. Her hands fell to his hips and she opened her mouth when he felt his tongue hesitatingly brushing against her lower lip. As they got into it, they completely forgot about the place they were in, or who they were with. The fury they felt moments before it was still there, and it was fueling their kiss, making both of them whisper and sigh low insults to each other. Insults that were soon erased by another insisting kiss.

"You're an idiot." She said silently. She felt a smile against her lips and a low husky laugh.

"Am I?" He kissed her lips. Once. Twice.

After a good deal of low whispered insults they heard someone clear his throat behind them.

Wally pushed away, grabbing Artemis by her hips and trying to get a look of her face in the darkness.

"I really wish I am not interrupting anything." Aqualad said in a severe tone. "Must I remind you that we are in a mission?" He had a couple of papers in his hands, and his voice sounded pretty serious. Not threatening, but still serious.

Artemis unwrapped herself from Wally's arms and bent down. Wally looked at Aqualad's raised eyebrow, offering an innocent smile. Standing back up she placed the walkie-talkie in Aqualad's hands.

"Sorry Kaldur. I do not know what got into us." She looked at the device being held by her leader's hands. "Mission accomplished." She bowed her head a little and left the two men alone. Kaldur inspected Wally's confused daze.

"What? Not good enough for you?" He said jokingly, but still in his serious tone.

"It's not that I just…" Wally rubbed his forehead, looking for words. "This just came out of nowhere, something came over me."

"Am I going to need to have 'The Talk' with you?" Aqualad said.

Wally chuckled silently. "I had that conversation long time ago, dude. I am the hottest hero in Happy Harbor after all. "

Kaldur shook his head slowly, smiling.

"I am glad I can bask in your glory." He said jokingly. "We must find the rest of the team, and find out what has happened to the rest of the hostages."

"I think I have enough motivation to do that." Wally started heading for the door, Aqualad close behind.

"Good." Aqualad said, following Wally down the stairs.


	20. Chapter 20

I actually have a good excuse for disappearing this time...

Soooo, my flash drive, which kept all of the chapters from this story that have been written and not yet published, it somewhere. Obviously i dont know where because if i did, i wouldn't be rewriting them right now. Good news is, i got to save two chapters, yay! So this week ill try and re write the ones that i lost and publish them immediately.

btw, i am super happy about the traffic that this story has gotten, taken into account i have been publishing since 2013 i think? so i will definitely finish it. hthank you for all your kind comments and recommendations they are greatly appreciated :)

* * *

"These heels are doing the murdering of my feet" Star said while grimacing and trying to keep up with her teammates.

"Ugh, Star, wrong choice of words." Raven said shivering slightly.

"Right, sorry." Star herself shivered as well, and hugged herself beneath her black leathered jacket.

"I just hope whatever is in that house gets us closer to the reason why these jerk faces did this to you guys, so they can just be thrown to jail at once." Beast boy said. He, like Robin, was also extremely upset about the torture that had happened to Star and Raven, which was good since most of the time this emotion motivated him to stay focused.

"Keep your head on your shoulders Beast boy, we don't take revenge on anybody." Raven said.

"Well, maybe it's time we should." He said silently to himself.

After walking for some more time through the neighborhood of Oak Park, passing by tremendously huge houses, all of them different from the other, they found the one they were looking for.

It stood in all of its glory, or well, the memory of its glory, since it was obviously abandoned and wrapped up in "DO NOT ENTER" tape.

Its once white walls were now stained by the passing of time. Rain, wind and who knows what else took the best of it, and now it looked more like a washed up brown color. The trio tore down the tape and stood there for a minute, listening closely, standing on the front patio.

"It seems nobody is home" Star said.

"That'll make things easier, I hope." Raven commented.

Beast boy tried pushing open the front door but it was locked. Taking some steps back he rolled his neck and cracked his knuckles.

"Let me do the honors" He said flirtatiously, and turned into a fly, inserting himself through the tiny peep hole that was on the doorknob.

"I can't believe the size of his ego can fit through there." She looked at Star, who smiled silently at her joke.

The door opened, revealing Beast boy leaning himself on the frame.

"Welcome, to my humble abode." He said while signaling them to come inside.

Both of them turned on their flashlights and went inside. The house was even bigger from the inside.

Beast boy let out a whistle, as he looked at the giant chandelier that stood above them, hanging on the ceiling. In front of them a large flight of stairs unfolded, leading to a second floor. The wooden floor seemed to be intact, but it was as creaky and noisy as it could be. To the left and further there seemed to be a living room, full of luxurious victorian couches that were covered in plastic, and to the right, a door that lead to a kitchen.

"I'll see if there's anything valuable upstairs." Star said taking flight, instead of stepping onto the probably dangerous stairs.

Raven took to the living room herself and Beast boy decided to head to the kitchen.

The place was fully furnished, but nothing really worked, except for a clock that hung up on the kitchen wall. Beast boy looked for anything that might mean a clue: pictures on the fridge, handwritten notes. But he found nothing.

Suddenly, something caught his eye from the corner of the kitchen counter.

It shone with its own light, and he picked it up with his hands. It was a marble, painted to look like a galaxy. It's detail impressed him and he kept staring, while he walked. While being so into it, he tripped with a chair and fell to the floor.

The wooden floor cracked beneath him, leaving a gap where his knee collisioned with it.

"Whoops, my bad." He said to himself.

"Why am I not surprised?"

Beast boy looked up to see Raven, pointing her flashlight at him, offering a hand to stand up.

"Check this out." Beast boy said when he recollected himself, and put the galactic marble in between him and Raven, not noticing how close they were.

Raven inspected it carefully, getting trapped in its detail as well.

"That must've taken some time to make." She said plainly.

As Beast boy lowered the marble, she found herself looking straight into his eyes. His expression was stern, compassionate, and some other emotion that she couldn't figure out.

For a moment she stopped breathing, and when she did, he had already cupped her face, trapping her into a soft kiss. Her hands rested on his chest, falling deeper into it. He was so gentle, holding her face and bringing himself closer to her with each breath. Her heart fluttered for a moment, until she heard a silent creak coming from the second floor.

"Wait…" She clumsily broke up the kiss, looking around.

Star came inside the kitchen, looking at a crumpled up piece of paper, instead of looking at the lovingly embraced couple she had before her.

"Star?" Raven said, still resting her hands on Beast boy's chest.

"It's a suicide letter." She said loud enough for them to hear.


	21. Chapter 21

"Hey baby, want me to show you a good time?" A longhaired brunette wrapped her arm with Robin's and caressed his face softly. The scene was pretty funny, since she was slightly taller than him.

Robin grabbed her arm carefully and untangled himself. "No, thanks." He said in a serious tone.

The curvaceous girl dressed on a short and skin tight red dress and tall heels shook her head and rolled her eyes at him, strutting back to the door of her workplace.

"Should've just told her you were gay, that would have been easier." Cyborg said. Red arrow chuckled silently.

"Ok, that was funny the first time, not anymore." Robin said. "Besides, how do you know that? Do you have late night adventures away from the tower?"

Cyborg smiled "As if. We take a step out of the tower during night time and your future self is all over us. Our duty is to know this city, every single corner of it, including these type of places."

"That'll make this job easier then" Red arrow said. "Are we close yet?"

"Just a couple of blocks away." Cyborg said, looking into the screen built in his arm.

Drunk men walked by the heroes, minding their own business. The loud music coming from the clubs was starting to be left behind and they reached an ally where all the houses were already closed up for the night. Brannan street had a reputation for being one of the worst neighborhoods in town. The titans had been here several times before to sabotage planned murders and serious riots. That being said, any house that wasn't a bar, a brothel, or a night club, had their gates, windows, and doors closed and double locked by 9:00 pm.

"Here we are." They stopped in front of a white wall, covered with graffiti of different gangs that lived nearby, with a door as the entrance to what was behind it. Not a single light bulb or street lamp was on, just the pale moonlight that shone over the trio.

"See you on the flipside then." Robin said, before making a jump on a nearby wall, perpendicular to the white one, and shooting himself above it and back onto the ground on the other side.

"Does he keep doing this after puberty?" Red Arrow asked Cyborg.

"It gets worse. I think he only says "Titans go!" because he can't say "Robin, go!"" Cyborg said reaching for the wall.

Red Arrow followed suit after nodding his head and having a sly smile appear on his face. They both climbed the wall with great skill and landed beside Robin.

It was pitch black, and before any of them could bring out any source of light to see each other, Robin felt the tip of a barrel gun being pushed against his forehead.

"Drop your weapons!" He heard a voice command them. He raised his hands up in sign of peace, and Cyborg and Red Arrow did too. Red Arrow dropped his arrows and his bow to the floor, as well as a small pocket knife. Cyborg didn't have any weapons with him, since he was the weapon, he just stayed still.

As Robin dropped his last birdarang, the voice growled at them.

"Who you think you are eh?! Climbing on my wall and shit, in the middle of the night!" He screamed at them with fury. "I could kill all of y'all with a single bullet right now. Line you up and pull the trigger."

"We're here in peace." Robin said calmly, trying to look into his eyes under the black sunglasses he wore.

"Yeh? Well normal people knock on doors!" The voice sounded menacing. "What you here in peace for, to abduct more people from my place?! I don't think so!"

"Abduct? People have been taken from here?" Robin asked the man.

"Do you not hear me, sunglasses?" The voice lowered his tone, but it was still full of fury.

"We're not here for that, we're here to help." Robin said.

"Why should I believe you three trespassers?" The voice spoke once again, in pure disbelief.

In that moment, Cyborg lowered the hood that covered his face, and his robotic parts started glowing softly.

The source of the voice, a tall, fit man with jet black hair and a mustache looked in awe. He was dressed in a white shirt and pijama pants. Tattoos adorned both of his arms and part of his neck.

"You're a teen titan! The ones that live on that T by the bay!" He said pointing his gun at him. Cyborg raised his hands once again when he saw what he was being pointed with.

The man looked at the gun and lowered it. "Sorry, sorry Mr. I can't believe I aimed a gun at a Teen Titan." He said dropping it to the floor, and raising his hands as if defending himself.

"It's fine, we just..."

"You! You and the green guy! Yes? You saved my fiance! From a riot? Remember her?" He got closer to Cyborg, interrupting him with abrupt emotion in his voice. "Red hair, petit, but a huuuuge ass. You can't forget about that right?" He asked with a smile.

Robin and Red Arrow looked at each other awkwardly.

"I think... I do?" Cyborg said, unsure about it.

"Yeah you do! Aw man thanks for that! Those jerks almost killed her that night. I owe you so much." The man took Cyborg's arm and shook it excitedly. He acted like a little kid meeting his hero for the first time.

"No you don't. We're heroes, that's what we do." Cyborg said simply. "And were here to help right now."

"Y'guys now were Francis is?!" The man eyes opened wide, taking Cyborg by the shoulders.

"Francis? Was he the one that was abducted?" Robin asked from behind him.

"Yeh, he was taken in the middle of the night. We only heard when the car got away, didn't have any time to do anything. You see, he's my neighbor, lives on the top floor." The man pointed behind him to a simple two story house. It was large and simple, only a couple of windows, an entrance door and some stairs to the second level. "The police haven't helped us in anything man, just filing useless reports. And we haven't heard about him since."

"Does he have any family?" Red Arrow asked.

"Yeh, his brother Craig." The man answered.

"Manson?"

"Yeh."

The trio looked at each other and nodded.

"Aww, I like that look, it means you know what's cooking right?" The man pointed playfully at Cyborg, with a wide smile.

"I think you can definitely help us out." Cyborg said, placing a hand on the man's shoulder.


	22. Chapter 22

Each team returned shortly to the hotel where they were staying, bringing with them the items that they found in their search through the hostages houses, trying to find a link with Craig and Eric.

Once they were all settled in, Robin took the word and started asking about how each mission went.

"Robin, what did you guys find?" He looked at his younger self.

"We crashed into some guys that know the hostage. They have no idea what sort of connection he might have with this whole situation. The only thing we know is that the guy is a pharmacist, and that is about it." Robin said.

The Titan's leader thought for a moment. "That information might be useful in the future. Did you find out his name?"

"Edgar Ashton." Red Arrow answered. "Nicknamed Francis, for some reason."

"Good Job." Robin said. He turned his look to Raven.

"We found a suicide letter. Grace Howard's suicide letter." The dark teen said.

Everyone fell silent for a moment, as Star reached into her pockets, unfolding it.

"What does it say?" Robin asked.

"Dear Reader: My heart is full of dismay and sorrow, for I have seen evil made person, and worse, I have made a deal with it. I no longer consider myself to be worthy of the simple wonders of everyday life, nor do I believe in anything that will make me love myself again. I am truly sorry to anyone I may be disappointing by this act, but it is something that I feel right in my heart to do. Please take this letter as my will, as I request none of my territory and belongings to be given to anyone, but to rather stay intact as it falls down on its own. Do not show this letter to my family or anyone I know, this is the reason why I had keep it hidden.

With this I give a final farewell to the world I know, with the hope that the evil and shame in it are killed before more innocent people are.

Goodbye." Starfire read out loud for everyone to hear.

"That thing is bone chilling." Kid Flash commented. "Where did you find the letter?"

"It was crumpled up and hidden in between a bunch of bills in her dormitory cupboard. I don't believe her house was searched thoroughly enough." Starfire said.

"That is a fact. Police abandoned the investigation for her death after seeing she committed suicide, and just left the house abandoned. Nobody would buy it after all, when everybody knew what had happened in there." Robin said holding his chin in thought.

"Great work guys." He said finally.

Kid Flash took the walkie-talkie in his hands. "I found this little toy, and got to hear some voices on it when I picked it up. I think whoever was on the other line knew we were in the house." He handed in to Robin.

"That does not surprise me at all." Robin said calmly. "Still, they couldn't do anything to stop it, so we were obviously one step ahead."

"What did you guys find?" Kid Flash looked at M'gann.

"Letter as well. But the hostage's wife wrote this one. Apparently, she escaped with her kids from the house, trying to find protection off course." She said. "We know nothing of who he might be either."

"The laptop I found didn't have a lot of information either, it is relatively new so, there is not much data in it." Robin said.

We might need to take a day to process all this info up." Cyborg said. "The tower's computer can help, once we feed all of this into it. I can sync my system with it and we won't have any need to leave the hotel."

"Excellent idea, let's get onto that." Robin decided. "Guys, take a moment to rest."

The teens begun to disperse, looking for a place to plop down and sleep, when most of them were out, Robin called two of them back.

"Kaldur, Starfire, please stay." He said. Kaldur walkwd back to the room along with Star and closed the door behind her. Cyborg stayed there as well.

"Did you notice anything uncommon during your mission?" He asked directly.

Kaldur and the princess looked at each other, then back at Robin.

"Can you be more specific?" She asked.

"I have my suspicions that someone waa trying to distract us while we researched, more speficially, someone was trying to pinpoint who's who." Robin started, walking to Cyborg's side. He was typing into his arm and didn't pay much attention to anything.

"Superboy and M'gann were kissing during the search." He said. Cyborg's head piped up inmediately, a goofy smile on his face.

"Daaaaaaamn, right in the middle of a mission?" He asked laughing.

"Exactly, that is the weird thing. I know these two, and they had a million chances to kiss before, why would they do it in that house specifically? In that moment?" Robin said.

"Man, you're getting to Sherlock Holmes-ish over this stuff. They're teenagers, let them live." Cyborg bumped Robin's arm playfully.

"Artemis and Kid Flash also kissed." Kaldur interrupted before Robin could say anything. The leader looked at Cyborg and his smile faded.

"Well ok, maybe it's not because they're teenagers, my bad." He said as he started typing once again.

"Star?" Robin waited.

"I do not know what to say Robin, I was upstairs, and when I came down, Beast boy and Raven were a few steps away from each other." Starfire said. "Although they might have, i have never seem Raven blushing so hard before."

"Ypu think there might be something that affected their behaviour?" Kaldur asked.

"There's only one way to find out", Robin said. "We're getting back to that house."


	23. Chapter 23

By the time Robin and Star had reached the house once more, the sun was already out, which meant they had to be extra careful about how they would get inside. Covered in sunglasses and civilian gym clothes, as if to appear as a normal couple out for a jog, they looked around the neighborhood.

"This is the house." Starfire said, pointing at the all-too familiar construction lying on front of them. It was kept intact from their last visit, and there wasn't anyone around anyway that could have noticed their presence.

Walking to the front door, Robin grabbed a little safety pin –like object. Inserting it in they keyhole, he moved it around and pushed on the door, opening it with no problem.

The pair entered the house, closing the door behind them.

"There's definitely something here." Robin said the moment he entered. "Star I need you to check the vents, use this."

He reached into his pocket and passed her a tiny device. It was a white tube, not longer than her thumb.

"Hold it over the vent, if it turns blue, it means there's a chemical compound diffusing from it." He explained. "I'll check the vents from upstairs."

"Understood." She said, grabbing the tiny stick and taking it with her. She went into the living room, which was right next to the kitchen, and found a vent above a crooked painting. Putting the device in front of it, she waited for a moment to see if there was any change. While keeping her arm extended to the vent she looked around the room.

It was full of nude furniture and china collections organized in glass shelters. A fireplace stood as the main attraction of the room. She sighed, trying to imagine how many Christmas may have been lived in this house before Grace took her own life. Even if she wasn't married, her family was still pretty big, according to research. A lot of brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces; all of them in the past now. Suicide was an interesting concept to Star, since its numbers were so low in Tamaran, she had only heard about one or two people who had committed this act in her home planet because of deep sorrow or the loss of a loved one. Until now, she could not begin to imagine the pain and sadness somebody may feel to do something such as take their own life away.

The little device beeped softly, interrupting her train of thought. Star landed gently on the ground and checked to see its color. A deep blue had tinted the once white device completely.

"Just what I thought." Robin appeared at the bottom of the staircase looking at the device in Star's hand and showing her his own, also tinted blue. "I think it might be adrenaline."

"Adrenaline? What is it?" Star walked towards him and handed him the tube.

Robin breathed in deeply and fussed around with his hands. "I can explain everything about it, but right now we should get out of here as fast as we can." He grabbed her by the arm and brought her to the door, before fussing around with his little safety pin looking device to pry the door open, since they locked themselves inside.

It seemed like his hands had turned into butter; the little thing was slipping through his fingers and making him lose his patience. He grabbed the doorknob and started pulling frantically.

"Robin you'll break it, stop!" Starfire grabbed his sweaty hand. "Let me try." She looked at him, preoccupied in his behavior.

Robin moved away some inches to give Star space to open up the door. He looked everywhere around the house nervously, anywhere but at Star.

"It seems the door lock is broken, I can't seem to open it." She inspected it closely. "Should I bring the door down?" She asked.

No response.

"Robin, should I bring the door…" She barely got to turn around when Robin grabbed her face and pushed her against the door, enveloping her in a steamy kiss, out of the blue.

Her eyes widened in shock, but quickly gave in and closed as she kissed him back. With a strength that came from God-knows-where, and his clumsiness gone, he grabbed her legs and pushed her up, wrapping them around his waist. Star kept her legs wrapped tight and her force against the door so Robin's hands were free to grab her waist.

For a moment, she opened her eyes slightly and caught a glimpse of a horrifying sight on top of the staircase. Two red glowing eyes, staring intently at them.

Her heart skipped a beat, and her left hand started looking for the doorknob frantically, all while still kissing Robin.

He bit her bottom lip, which caused her to jump slightly and lose concentration for a moment. Finally she felt the doorknob and lighted a starbolt for it to break. When it did, the door gave up and she fell to the floor, Robin on top of her. He quickly pushed himself off her to prevent any injuries.

"Are you okay?" He asked worried.

"I think I'll manage." She said, smiling softly, and then looking back at the staircase. The two glowing eyes were gone.


	24. Chapter 24

"Man, whoever came up with this thing is kind of a genius." Cyborg looked at a monitor screen he had set up in awe. "It's like a whole new element."

"Any chance you can explain the reaction in the human body?" Robin asked him in front of the whole group. Both of the teams were silent, each of them keeping a secret that they'd hope nobody knew.

"You know how we can get adrenaline rushes from basically anything out of normal? Our blood supply increases, in a state of alert, so that our heart beats faster. Well this chemical compound is basically like adrenaline, including high levels of dopamine, which is activated when something good or pleasant happens." Cyborg explained. "In other words, it basically makes hormones even worse than what they are. They cancel out any form of self control and thought, digging deep into what your sub consciousness really wants or has been thinking about."

The heroes blushed hard, each of them for their own reasons.

"Thanks Cy, you really helped us out." Robin said, holding the blue little device on his hand.

"There's the explanation for all the kissing." Robin said finally.

The heroes looked at each other silently, without saying a word.

"What? Kissing?" The younger Robin asked confused, and looked at his teammates for an answer.

He looked at Kid for a moment, and he tried to look away in embarrassment.

"You kissed Artemis!" Robin stated pretty obviously, pointing at him. Artemis buried her face into a nearby pillow and Kid Flash stood up in defense.

"Hey! You heard Cyborg, we all got affected by the chemicals!" He said. "Besides I wasn't the only one who did it!"

The group looked over at the blushing kryptonian trying to keep a straight face, then at M'gann. Before they could say anything he spoke up. "We're all adults here, let's not make a show out of this."

"Trust me, we were all waiting for that to happen." Kid Flash told him, which made Superboy and M'gann blush even harder.

Over that whole conversation, Cyborg went up to Beast boy and whispered in his ear.

"Don't worry Bb, your secret is safe with me." He playfully slapped his back and chuckled. Beast boy tried to rub his back, shooting a glare at his friend.

"Hey, guys settle down." Red Arrow tried to speak over the noise. "I don't think that's the most important part."

"Actually, no, it isn't." Robin said. The teams quieted down and listened.

"The creation and placement of this chemical means that somebody was watching, and decided to distract us for a little while. I even have reasons to believe there was somebody inside the house yesterday when Star and I found it diffusing from the vents."

"Wait, wait… ok so, you went into the house yesterday, right?" Kid Flash said.

"Yes, kid." Robin answered.

"And you went along with Star right?" He asked.

Robin's eyes turned into slits, as he knew where this was going.

"Yes kid, the chemical had the same effect on me. You happy?" He said finally.

Kid looked at Star for a moment, she was blushing slightly, trying to keep a straight face.

"I rest my case." Kid grinned and sat back down.

"So, there was someone in the house when you went inside?" Kaldur asked.

"I didn't see anything. Starfire did." Robin said.

"There was a pair of glowing red eyes over at the second floor." She said.

"Well whoever that was, it didn't bring down the whole mission, so were still in a good place. You guys can take some time to rest while we figure out the next step." Robin said, dismissing them. "I'm sure some of you need to have a conversation." He said while hiding a smile.

"Including you!" Kid Flash tried to defend himself.

The titan leader looked at him, smirking.

"Oh yes, off course." He looked at Starfire, handing out his hand. "May I have a word, Starfire."

She grabbed his hand. "You may, Robin." She stood up and followed him to a room.

Kid Flash straightened himself when he saw his joke fail. "Well, that is just not fair."

M'gann looked at the dark empathy as she meditated silently in one of the suites room. She hesitated for a bit, then knocked softly on the door.

Raven opened her eyes and lowered her hood, turning back.

"Hope I'm not interrupting." She said with a little smile.

"Not at all, come in." Raven said, dropping soflty on the bed.

M'gann walked towards Raven and sat down behind her.

"Everything ok?" She asked the troubled martian.

"Oh yes, perfectly." She said. "Except…"

She played with her fingers nervously before speaking up.

"I was meaning to ask you, after Slade's attack I um…"

"You went into my mind." Raven finished the sentence.

M'gann looked up at her. "Yes, I think I sensed something was troubling you. Deeply. Something that maybe your team doesn't know about what's going on."

Raven sighed softly, and M'gann looked at her. There was some kind of worry plastered on her face, but it wasn't very clear what was going on inside her head.

"When I met my team, Robin, Star, Cyborg and Beastboy, I really didn't think they would end up meaning so much to me. We've been through so much."

"So I've been told." M'gann said.

"You have no idea." Raven looked at her. "We've had people betray us, plot against us, plan our own deaths. We've seen each other's demons, our dark pasts. Robin literally went to hell and back with them, just to keep me safe."

M'gann listened closely to the words of the empath.

"They're my family. And I just don't want anyone or anything to hurt them. It's a recurring nightmare that comes every time one of them gets hurt." Raven said.

"It's horrible. What I saw, I mean." M'gann said. "There was so much pain, so much fear. I thought you might have a clue on what will happen next."

"I wish." Raven said. "Everything you saw were just my fears, as I was almost slipping away from reality."

"That's horrendous." M'gann said out loud to herself, then remembered she wasn't alone. "I mean, no offense…"

"None taken." Raven gave her a little smile. "I learned some time ago that it's okay to be scared. You just have to decide what to do with that fear."

"You're right, Raven." M'gann took this advice for herself.

"Other than that episode, I am okay." Raven said calmly.

"I'm glad you are. And I appreciate everything you just shared with me." M'gann said.

"You're the one that's most like me here, right? I think I can trust you." Raven nodded softly.

"Sure you can." M'gann grinned happily. "You can trust me."


	25. Chapter 25

"What do you mean we let them go?" Ethan Worthington's face was red with rage.

"I broke my fucking back to get this people were they are, and now you want me to let them go?"

"They're too many, you have to let them go." A dark voice spoke back to Ethan.

The pier was abandoned at this time of the night, which means Ethan and his partner, Kurt, were free to speak and plan out with whoever was taking charge.

"So how many are we keeping? Three? Two?" Kurt spoke up, as he threw his cigarrete to the floor.

"Just one. Pick whichever you like." The voice responded calmly.

"I don't think you understand, you asshole. These people are supposed to be 'dead'. That is what everybody thinks. How are they going to appear out of nowhere?" Ethan said.

"Leave that to me." The voice boomed back.

"How should we trust you? We haven't even seen your face. What tells us you won't give us away?" Ethan said menacingly.

The voice fell silent for a moment, then footspets were heard approaching them.

A tall, dark figure emerged from the shadows, revealing the all to familiar mask that Slade wore.

"You have no other choice but to trust me." Slade spoke to the pair.

Ethan and Kurt stared at the armored man in silence, stepping back a few inches in awe.

"But… but what are we supposed to do now? The codes were taken away from us." Ethan hesitated in speaking.

"I got everything I needed from that last encounter with the Titans." Slade said. "You just do what I say and you'll get your pay."

"Fine. We will." Ethan said.

Before leaving, Kurt turned around to see a pair of glowing red eyes beside Slade's. He shivered and pushed Ethan to walk faster and leave the pier.

"I knew those two would screw something up." The voice behind the red glowing eyes spoke, revealing Red-X standing beside him with his arms crossed.

"They just have one more thing to do before I send them away. After that I'll just have to worry about the Titans." Slade said before walking back into the shadows, Red-X following suit.

The morning came along, and both of the teams woke up well rested and ready to deal with whatever the day brought.

The big TV screen on the middle of the room was turned on with the daily news. Off course, the only one who was watching was Robin, and his older self. The rest of the heroes helped themselves to breakfast quietly.

That was until, the breaking news alarm sounded and caught everybody's attention.

" _This just in! A group of people wake up from their commas, all of them stating how they were being kept hostage by a madman. They are both being treated psychologically to try and find the reason for this traumatic experience and coincidence among all of them. More one this news in mid day Jump City News."_

The heroes were all speechless for a few moments. The only noise that was heard was the faucet dripping slowly and the TV anchors that kept informing the news.

"They **fucking** didn't" Cyborg said in a low voice.

"They fucking did man." Beast boy answered.

"Artemis, M'gann, get ready, were going to the hospital." The young titan leader spoke up, and the duo scrambled to the restrooms to get ready.

"Cyborg get in touch with anybody you can in the media, we don't want any personal facts about these people leaked." Robin said while grabbing his leather coat and dark sunglasses. The older Robin just looked at him while he took charge. He felt a bit of pride in the situation.

"The rest of you guys stay put, I have a feeling we have a heavy day ahead of us." He said.

M'gann dressed in civilian clothes and with her skin tinted Caucasian walked across the halls of the hospital, looking for one of the hostages. Far ahead, she could see a bunch of reporters being shooed away by hospital staff. She picked up her pace until she got there.

A nurse put herself in the way.

"Sorry, nobody but hospital staff goes through after this point."

M'gann looked around to make sure nobody was looking, then her eyes began to glow blue as she looked straight into the nurses eye. She moved away from where she was, letting M'gann pass.

"You may go in." She said, in a trance.

M'gann quickly went into the room, closing and locking the door behind her.

The man laying in the bed got startled and brought his head up immediately.

"You're not my nurse." He said, confused, scanning the martian from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. "I mean, not that I'm complaining or anything, y'know."

The man was tall and blonde. She couldn't see much under the covers but it was obvious he was pretty athletic, since his arms were pretty big, and his feet almost didn't fit the bed.

"You're James, right?" She asked.

"Who's asking?" He said, now suspicious. "Are you a reporter?"

"No, I know what happened with you and the rest of the people you were with." M'gann came closer to him.

"So you do believe when I say I was being kept hostage? You don't think this is a post-traumatic stress disorder crap?" He asked.

"Yes, I do." She quickly glanced to the window on the bedroom's door. "But I still need to know some things about what happened."

"I'll tell ya everything you need to know if you promise that psycho son of a bitch is going to die in jail." James sat up in his bed, rage was heard in his voice. "Scratch that, death is too good for him. Just make sure he suffers."

"That's the idea." M'gann said.

"I don't even know where to start." James said. "I was taken from my home on Elm Street in the middle of the night. Two guys just came in, tied me up and locked me in a van. I put up quite a fight, but they used some kind of drug that made all of my limbs useless."

M'gann listened with close attention.

"For how long were you in the van?" She asked.

"I don't know. My eyes were covered with black clothes, and there were no windows, so it may have been 2 hours, or 18." James said, looking at the ceiling, trying to remember. "I don't know where we were being kept either. When I got there I just got thrown into a jail cell with two other guys."

"Who were they?" M'gann asked.

"You see, its funny cause one of them is one of my friends brother, and the other one was just some dude." James said.

"Is you friends name Craig, by coincidence?" M'gann said, trying to tie the knots.

James looked a her quizzically. "Yeah… that's him alright. How do you know?"

"I just do." M'gann said, deciding it was better if he didn't know why Craig was being looked for. "Is his brother in the hospital too?"

"Yeah, he supposedly woke up from a 'comma' today too, and told everybody the same thing I'm telling them, but they just think we are being crazy." James said.

"Wait, so its just you two?" M'gann asked.

"As far as I know. I haven't heard about the other guy." James said. "Maybe he is still being kept away."

"Maybe you're right." M'gann said standing up, deep into her thoughts.

"Wait, so you're just going to leave and not tell me what's going on?" James said when she stood up. "Is Craig okay? Is Francis ok? Are they gonna let me go?"

"Calm down, Craig is okay. For now, at least." M'gann said, hesitating. "You will find out what is going on, but for know, you need to rest. Everything you just told me is going to make things run smoothly." She looked out of the room window and with a swift hand movement shut the blinds so nobody could see who was inside.

James eyes went wide as saucers.

"Listen, the media is going crazy right now with everything that has happened with both of you. You can´t tell them anything. No personal info, no nothing, or else you might be in danger. Understand?" M´gann spoke in a whisper, transmitting calm to the man.

With his eyes still wide, he just nodded softly.

"Aight, aight. I´ll stay cool and quiet." He said, sinking a little into the bed.

M'gann quickly blinked and her eyes started glowing, catching him in a type of trance that made him lay down and close his eyes in slumber.

She opened the door silently and left the room, looking for Robin to tell him what she had found out about the hostage situation. She brought out a provisional phone put of her pocket and dialed. When the other line picked up, she spoke.

" _Robin, there's still one hostage being kept."_ She reported through the psychic link.

"I will tell you one more time, and that´s it." A young short man sat up in his hospital bed, annoyed. "I am not fucking crazy. I was being kept hostage for God knows how much time, and I was not in a comma."

"Mr. Ashton… I mean, Manson, we understand your distress." A nurse tried to calm him down.

"Baby, no you don´t" He spat back to the nurse, still annoyed.

"I think it would be better if you rest Edgar. Your stress levels are really high." The Doctor on duty looked at his patient.

"You betcha I´m stressed. This hospital is full of incompetent little fucks!" Edgar threw his hands in the air in rage.

The doctor and nurse started for the door, as Edgar kept spitting curse words and rage in a loud voice.

Right after they closed the door behind him, Artemis entered in nurse attire and shut it back closed, with double lock.

"And who the fuck are you?!" Edgar kept screaming in annoyance.

A nerve popped. "Ok, first of all watch the language you annoying little smurf. Second, I´m just here to help you out, so just shut up and listen to what I have to say, okay?" Artemis rised her eyebrows at him waiting for an answer.

Edgar calmed down and shut his mouth. "Yes m'am." He said silently.

The trio went back to the hotel suite at around mid-day. The girls plopped down on the sofas and Robin took off his glasses and soon as he came in.

"How´d it go?" Robin asked his younger self.

"Well, everybody thinks they´re crazy, so…" Robin said taking off his leather jacket.

"Apparently, Kurt and Ethan decided to let them go, for some reason, and this is the best they could do. They both know what they went through is real but nobody else does."

"So, who are they?" Raven asked.

"One of Craig´s friends, called James, and Craig´s brother, Edgar." Robin answered.

"So there´s still one hostage to find." The older Robin stated. "You guys narrowed down the search really well guys, congratulations." He patted his younger self on the back, offering a small smile.

"You are literally congratulating yourself man." Wally commented. "Talk about being egocentric."

"Guys listen." The older Robin spoke up to both teams. "I know it´s been a crazy week and you´re still waiting for that portal to get fixed, but I do feel like we need your help. We´ve had very bad injuries and strong battles but, I am really thankful for your help."

Superboy spoke up. "You don´t have to thank us Robin. Once a team, always a team."

"Thanks Conner." He started talking again after thinking for a moment. "I just don´t want any of you to get hurt in any way. If there is any moment if which you want out, I´ll completely understand." Robin added.

The visitor team look at each other for some seconds, before the younger Robin spoke up. "You know what? You can count on all of us. We are not leaving until this is cleared up." He stood up and offered a fist bump to his older self, smirking.

"Booyah" Cyborg said in a low voice.

The small little circle of happiness didn´t last very long, for an alarm stated beeping from Cyborg´s arm, detecting attack.

"Do they EVER rest?!" Wally commented when he heard the alarm go off.

"It seems not. Robin, It´s Ethan and Kurt."

"Drop a pin and we will all be there." Robin said. "Gear up guys."


	26. Chapter 26

The titans arrive to the bay, only to find Kurt and Ethan sitting down inside a building-sized empty container, apparently abandoned, and left in the most isolated corner of the bay. A man crouched in between them. His hands and feet tied up.

Both the teams keep their distance from the men, as they do not know if Slade or X are nearby.

"Well, well, well." Kurt took some steps forward. "Looks like our little victims are all better now, right Ethan?"

Ethan smiled viciously. "We´re going to have to hurt them once again I believe. But this time, I don´t think we´ll have any mercy."

The teams took some steps forward from Raven and Starfire.

"You wish you could." The titan leader spat out. "If anybody is leaving hurt today, it´s both of you."

"Oh, and what about our friend?" Ethan walks back and grabs the face of their hostage. His face was disfigured from all the beating he had taken. His clothes were dirty and bloodied, and he didn´t seem to have any energy inside of him no more. His head just plopped back down when Ethan let it go. "Does he get to have fun too?"

The teams concealed their disgust and concern when they saw the man´s state. This only fueled Robin´s anger even more. He almost wished Slade was nearby so he could kill him with his bare hands for making innocent people suffer like this.

"What is it that you want?" He said in a low menacing voice.

"Oh, we already got what we wanted, we´re just doing the last part of our job." Ethan said, while Kurt undid the roped of the hostage's hands and feet. He made him stand up and kicked him forward, making him fall to the floor face first. Raven rushed to him and helped him up silently, and taking him to where she was standing before so she could heal some of his wounds.

Ethan and Kurt smiled. "Too bad we can´t be here for the party. But it sure was fun." Kurt said.

Before Robin could answer, a thick smoke wall exploded between them and the team, and when it dissipated, they were both gone.

But the Titans still weren´t alone.

M´gann and Wally crouched beside Raven to keep an eye on the hostage, but the rest of them stay put to see who else was hiding in the shadows.

"It´s nice to have a proper meeting at last." Robin heard Slade´s familiar voice echo through the container´s walls.

"Raven, take him to the hospital and get back here as soon as you can." Robin spoke without turning around.

"Titans get ready" He said, pulling out his bo-staff and getting into fighting stance. Both teams readied themselves for what was about to come. It was about time to end all this madness.

Out of the shadows stepped Slade and Red X by his side. They just stood there, quietly.

"I´m glad to see the wounded have been recovered. But this still isn´t over." Slade said. "In fact… It has just begun."

As soon as he ended his sentence, X duplicated once, twice, up to four times, right in front of the teams eyes.

"What the…" Beast boy said in a low voice.

"Have fun keeping up." Slade said, just before they all jumped to attack the heroes.

"Titans, Go!" Robin yelled as they all lunged forward to fight. Robin knew who he was going to fight immediately, even if it was the last thing he did.

Red X lunged a kick to M´gann, and she dodged it neatly, throwing a punch and de-stabilizing him for a moment. Superboy took his chance to knock him out but X dodged his every move. Confused, Superboy stopped for a moment, and Red X took the opportunity and grabbed him arm, throwing him against the wall.

M´ganns eyes widened at this, and then narrowed with rage, and she lunged back again at the Red X clone to fight him with her fists. Red X grabbed her arm as well with immense force. Even if M´gann tried to fight it, it was useless. She ended up getting her arm twisted behind her back, hearing a loud crack ash she was pushed to the floor, she let out a scream of pain when she hit the pavement.

Beastboy turned into the lion and jumped on Red X while he looked over the injured martian. When he looked down to see X, he was gone. Frantically, he morphed back into a human form to look for him, but the only thing he saw was a red and black blur before being cut on his arm by a Red X´s weapon, which was as pointy as Robin´s birdarangs. He grunted in pain and turned into a Rhino, roaring with rage, as he lunged back again and Red X.

Meanwhile, Kaldur and Speedy where trying to fight one of the clones, that kept duplicating by the minute. They were getting punched from every angle, and even with the swift gushed of water Aqualad sent, and Speedy´s aim, they just regenerated and kept fighting the heroes.

Wally, the younger Robin, Cyborg and Starfire were closer to their leader, fighting as well, but also keeping a lookout for what was happening between him and Slade, since their fight was also heating up quickly and Robin was already injured.

"You´re going to regret this Slade" Robin said, firing multiple birdarangs in his direction, in which only one landed on his metallic chest, denting him slightly.

"The only one who will regret this will be you, Robin." Slade walked forward and planted a kick on the young heroes' chest. Robin struggled to keep himself up but he did, keeping a menacing expression on his face. "I don´t think you understand how much power I have over you and your little friends. I can get them killed if I want to, in any moment."

Robin didn´t answer and tried to hit Slade with his bo-staff, but every hit was being dodged by the villain.

"Here, let me show you." Slade said darkly.

In a matter of seconds, Slade pressed a button built in his arm armor and a gunshot was heard. It all happened in slow motion for him, Robin´s eyes went wide as the whole place went quiet and Slade disappeared into darkness. He could feel his ear drums ringing from the sound, and then he heard a blood curling scream that made his heart drop.

"ARTEMIS!"

Robin tried to compose himself from the situation that just happened. Turning around he saw Artemis laying on the ground, her eyes wide open in horror, looking down at an open wound in her stomach.

"Raven we need you here, **NOW** " Robin communicated with the empath using his communicator as he sped up to her.

Wally ran to her side and tried to sit her up, holding her head and her arms.

"It´s okay, you´re okay, you´re going to be fine." He said nervously, grabbing her face to try to keep her with him.

Quickly Speedy took off his shirt and rolled it up, pressing it on the bloody wound to keep any more blood from coming out.

Artemis cried out in pain when he did this, tears started streaming down her face.

Robin looked around for Raven, but the only other ones that were near the entrance of the container were Superboy helping M´gann up, since her arm had been injured. They were slowly walking towards Artemis.

"Artemis don´t close your eyes ok? Stay with me." Wally took off his glove and grabbed her hand, which was cold to the touch, too cold for comfort. Her team huddled together to assist the speedster, as did the titans. They tried to hold her up and stop the blood, but the wound seemed to be very serious.

Her eyes were barely open, and no words came out of her, except for moans of pain.

Starfire hurried to Robin´s side. "She doesn´t have much time Robin."

As soon as she spoke, Raven arrived to the scene and immediately enveloped both of the teams, taking them back to the tower´s medical wing.

Quickly, she and Cyborg started hooking her up to a machine to help her breathe, while Wally, along with Speedy´s help bandaged up the wound properly. M´gann was being assisted by Star and Superboy. She hadn´t really seemed her arm in proper lighting, but now that she could, she was horrified. Her arm was twisted, and needed to be snapped into place properly.

Star looked at her with concern, and M´gann knew what had to be done. She nooded quickly "Do it, Star."

Superbody grabbed her face and enveloped her in a hug, leaving her bad arm on Star´s hand.

"It´ll be fine." He whispered in her ear.

Starfire grabbed her arm, and with great pressure snapped it quickly. Both M´gann and Superboy flinched at the sound, and her cry of pain was muffled a bit from being buried into his chest.

"Conner, help me bandage her." He took the bandage that Star held up for him and started wrapping her arm correctly, while Star applied pain medication. He looked at M´gann, as tears fell from her face. She was looking at the other heroes trying to save her friend. Superboy stood in front of her, blocking the view.

"She´ll be fine ok? You have to believe she´ll be fine." He said, although he wasn´t completely sure about what he was saying. The situation grew worrysome when Artemis´pulse started dropping.

"Everybody move away." Raven said, walking closer to her and placing her hands on her wound. The heroes all huddled together near her bed. Wally squeezed her hand, refusing to let go. They all listened to the monitor beeps as the room went quiet. Raven closed her eyes and her hands began glowing slightly.

 _Beep._

She muttered her mantra silently, but constantly.

Robin held Starfire´s hand, for the first time in years, feeling pure fear.

 _Beep._

Speedy and Kaldur looked at each other, worry plastered on their faces. M´gann and Superboy glued their eyes to the monitor.

Cyborg and Beast boy held their breathed.

A single, long beep was heard throughout the room. A single tear rolled down Raven´s cheek from her closed eyes.

"No…" Wally whispered silently.

The beep continued. Raven kept her hands on the wound.

It seemed like eternity until a couple of seconds later, the beeping became short once again, and the monitor found a pulse.

Everybody let out a breath of relief when they heard this, as they sighed in unison.

Raven took her hands off the wound and opened her eyes.

"She´s back." She said simply.

Wally and M´gann quickly stood up and hugged Raven at the same time.

"Raven, thank you so much." He said.

"It´s ok Wally. We are a team." Was all she responded. "She´s stable now, and will be fine in a day or two."

Cyborg looked around the gleeful room and noticed something. He walked closer to Star.

"Star… where´d Robin go?" He asked.


	27. Chapter 27

Starfire sped down the hallway and into the main room. She caught Robin headed for the T-car.

"Where are you going?!" She yelled at him from the inside. Robin turned back around, rage filled his expression.

"This is going to end today. Before Slade kills somebody." He said, then got into the T- Car and shut the door.

Starfire quickly sped to the Car and opened his door.

"You must be insane if you think I will let you go fight Slade and Red X alone." She said, holding the door.

"Well then call Arkham Asylum and tell them to take me away, Star; because that is exactly what I am doing." He reached for the door handle but Starfire stood in his way.

"Stop this. We are a team and we´re not letting you do this alone. This is not only your battle." She said a serious tone. There weren´t a lot of time where she took this stance, but Robin had gotten to know her well to be able to know when she was getting fed up with something.

"Star, listen…" Robin stepped out of the car to try and speak calmly.

"No, Robin. You listen." She said. "Last time you went behind our backs to try and fight him we had to revive you. You were badly injured, mentally distressed and in the worse conditions we have ever seen you. You have a whole team that has your back and you still decide to fight Slade on your own. Why is that?"

Robin fell silent as he heard her words, echoing in his head.

He hesitated for a moment before answering, then looked back at Starfire in her eyes. "Because, I don´t want any of you to get hurt." He paused for a moment. "If I could take a shot, for every one of you, I would. It would be better than to see you suffer because of me. Because of my mistakes."

Starfire took his hand into hers. "Let us take a shot for you too, Robin."

"You saw the best in us when nobody else did, gave us your trust and your knowledge. If we fight, we fight together."

Robin looked back into the common room, and saw his team grouping up silently, listening to the conversation unfold. Sly smiles on their faces.

"What she said, man." Cyborg said from the inside, loud enough for Robin to hear.

Robin couldn´t help but smile. All of the years he spent working solo, he had never imagined trusting anybody else but himself. But the Titans had become his family. The only people that know who he really is and why he is that way. And the only people he would take a bullet for. He pulled Star into a hug and whispered.

"Thank you, Star."

Beastboy walked in and interrupted the hug.

"Weeeeeelll, who´s ready to kick Slade´s butt then?" He said.

"What about the rest of the team?" Starfire asked.

"Let them be. They all have had enough for today and probably want to keep up with Artemis and M´gann until they heal." Robin said climbing back into the car.

"Let´s go finish this." He said.


	28. Chapter 28

A light rain had started to fall. It almost wasn't even visible, but the heroes could certainly hear it from inside of the car. It almost seemed as if they were back to old times, just the five of them heading to a mission in the car. The past week felt like an eternity, considering everything that has happened, and everything that was about to happen. Robin felt somewhat relieved the other team stayed back at the tower; they did not deserve to go through this when they were just trying to help. It was better if they stayed and rest. He wanted to stop any other injury before it happened, it was better that way.

Here we are, Cyborg said as Robin brought the car to a stop. Slade's coordinates where hard to find, but eventually Cyborg tapped into them, near a cliff on a high spot of the bay. It was isolated and away from the city.

 _"Good."_ Robin thought. The last thing he needed was to have any other citizen hurt by anything.

The rain started pouring, and every titan got soaking wet immediately as soon as they went out of the car.

"Well that's just great." Beast boy commented.

The heroes heard commotion coming from behind, they turned around to find an army of Slade bots, being leaded by Slade himself. Before Robin could say something, they slade bots picked up the paced and started running towards them, lunging at each titan.

"Remember they are stronger now!" Robin said above the noisy rain, before a Slade bot brought him to the ground. Raven and Starfire's heads were spinning with flashbacks thanks to the damned robot. It seemed as if Slade was setting the battle for him to win, by messing with their heads. Starfire started shooting starbolts at the robot mercilessly with no avail. The machine still stood still without even shaking. The bot lunged a kick at her and got her to stumble. When she brought her head back up, she found herself fighting with Red X.

"Hey cutie." He said in a low whisper.

Her eyes glowed with rage at him and she grabbed his arms, bringing him to the floor. She punched him once he was down. Red X just touched his cheek and Star could swear he was smiling behind the mask. "So, I don't get kisses?"

Starfire grabbed him and threw him away from her, only to have him teleport right in front of her once again, planting a kick to her stomach and making her trip with his leg.

Stat hit the ground on her back. When she tried to get up, Red X was on top of her, holding her neck.

"That was a hell of a kiss back in that house... what makes me different from him huh?" He said with a laugh. "He wore this gear as well, remember?"

Starfire shudded at the memory. She kicked him off her and stood up, starbolts shining in her hands. Before she could fire at him again, Beast boy crashed into red X in rhino form, knocking him out on impact.

Morphing back into a human, he tried to shake off some water off him.

"Dickhead" he muttered in a low voice, throwing a look at the villain that laid unconscious on the ground.

Meanwhile Robin and Cyborg were taking down sladebots to their left and right. They could see the number starting to decrease, but that didn't make Robin calm down, he still knew Slade was walking around, watching them.

Robin took his bo staff and hit a slade bot in the head, blowing off his circuits and making it fall useless on the floor.

"Booyah!" Cyborg said. "That's what I'm talking about my man!" He went over to Robin and patted him on the back full force. Robing cringed a little bit when he felt his palm connect on his back, but he still high fived his friend with a half smile.

They looked around at the slade bots, scattered around the wet floor, dripping with the rain that fell from the sky.

"Where are you, Slade!" Robin yelled over the rain.

Silence...

The titans huddled together, each one of them looking at a different angle, back to back.

"Just where I wanted you." Slade's voice was heard, before Robin felt a smack on the back of his head. He hit the floor and gashed his forehead when it hit the pavement. Regaining his vision, he opened his eyes.

All his team mates were also hit by an unknown force, and laid on the ground, each one of them in pain.

Slade grabbed Robin by his collar and picked him up.

"Where's your team now?" He said menacingly.

"Put me down, you sick fucker" Robin spat out at him.

"Is it rage I see under that mask, Robin?" Slade asked, making his grip stronger.

"Is it because you're not ready to see your team fall apart one by one?" He whispered.

Robin struggled in his grip. "Stop."

"Is it because you know I am capable of pulling a trigger in a second and have them gone?"

"Let me go!" Robin said, kicking Slade in his chest.

"Or are you mad because you couldn't protect your past team?"

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" Raven yelled from the floor behind Slade, extending her arm while she sat up and engulfing him in dark magic, dropping Robin to the floor and sending Slade flying back.

Robin tried to stand up but felt a sharp pain jolt in his back, so he just stayed down, on his knees.

Red X had meanwhile awoken from his knock out, courtesy of Beast boy, and took his chance now that the Titans were out. He always loved pissing of Robin whenever he could, so he knew what he did best.

He walked across the circle of titans laying in pain on the floor, looking for something in his belt as he walked. He grabbed a small gun and reloaded it, heading for Starfire.

Cyborg saw the scene unfold, while every other titan was still trying to bring it together and stand up.

"Star!" He tried to warn her but it was too late. Red X grabbed her by her arm as she grunted in pain. He brought his hand to her face, wrapping one arm around her head and using the other one to put the gun to her head.

Starfire closed her eyes, not out of fear, but because she didn´t want to see her teammates suffer when they saw her like this.

Red X lowered his hand a bit and moved it to her throat.

"Unhand me." She said full of rage, struggling in his surprisingly strong arms. Whatever Slade was pumping his slade bots and Red X with, was definitely working.

He increased the pressure on her throat, keeping her from breathing correctly.

Robin look up from his position on the floor. Never had he felt so helpless.

Beside him, his team mates were doing the same, looking at the same scene unfold in horror. Red X´s finger was put on the trigger, menacingly.

Slade appeared behind him from the shadows, swiftly kicking Star on her knees, making her fall to the floor once again.

She yelled out in pain as she fell, and then her head was pulled back by Red X grabbing her hair and pulling it, so she was eye level with her team

"I swear to God, you will fucking pay for this." Robin said, still weak on the ground, but his voice was full of anger and determination.

Red X brought the gun once again to Starfire´s forehead.

"Patience, Robin." Slade said standing behind X. "You can´t let emotions control your acts, remember? So many bad things can happen when you do."

He walked right up to Starfire, crouching beneath her. She looked at him right into his eyes, which were glowing green with the last energy she had.

"Any last words, princess?" Slade ran his cold gloved hands through her wet hair. Full of decision and anger, Starfire spit right to his face, making Slade stand up in disgust. She took the chance and grabbed the hand covering her throat, and brought it to her mouth, biting it. Red X´s reflexes failed because of the unexpected pain, and he let the gun fall. She quickly stood up and brought a knee to his face, leaving him unconscious on the ground, once again. Grabbing the gun, she turned around, only to find Slade facing right in front of her. She kept the gun aiming at his forehead, and her hands didn´t even shake.

At this point the rest of her team were standing up, ready to fight in any moment when given the signal.

"You tell me." She answered his question.

Slade chuckled in an evil dark manner. He nodded slowly, in approval. "I see he´s trained you very well." Was all he said.

Robin spoke up from behind Starfire, who kept the gun to Slade´s head.

"What do you want, Slade?" He said.

"It´s interesting you ask, Robin." Slade said. "Since I already got it."

"You might think this is over because the hostages went free, right? How wrong you are." He looked at the princess, still holding a gun to his head. "I´ve learned my lesson not to bring anyone else into my business… not even professional assassins can do the work better than I can."

Robin knew he was referring to Kurt and Ethan.

"But I still got what I wanted." He said, pausing for a second. "In a matter of minutes, Jump City central will only be a bunch of rubble and debris. And where will every bodies favorite heroes be when there are innocent people to save?" Slade said.

Raven´s eyes widened a bit when Slade spoke these words, as did Beast boy and Cyborg.

"So that´s what you wanted?" Robin said. "A weapon from Craig and Eric? Is that the best you could resolve after the codes were taken away from you?"

"Oh, you should be glad. You and your team screwed up part of my scheme. But what kind of a person would I be If I didn´t have a plan B" Slade said.

"And what do you get from all of this." Raven said boldly.

"You will soon see." Slade said. He moved his hand to catch a built in button on his chest piece, and as soon as Starfire saw him slowly teleport she shut the gun to his leg, injuring him. She didn´t know if it was of much damage, but he definitely saw him react to it, right before he disappeared in front of her very eyes.

She lowered the gun, unloading the bullets that were left inside of it.

Robin came up to her and held her face in his hands. He asked his most hated question in this cases.

"How do you feel?" He asked, while inspecting the cuts and hits that she had on her face, covered by the rain that was now falling lightly once again.

"Furious." Was all she said, looking at Robin to his eyes.

"Good… Then you´re okay." He said, putting her hair behind her ears and planting a kiss on her forehead right before enveloping her in a quick hug.

"As for you, little Mr." Cyborg said walking up to the groggy villain. He was sure he had a bad nosebleed. That kick in the face from Star was a heavy move, but he couldn´t see anything behind the mask.

"I believe our friend deserves an apology." He grabbed his arm and picked him up like a puppet as Starfire and Robing walked up to him.

"I´m s-sorry…" He said in a low voice. He weakly brought up his head back up to look at Starfire in the eyes, then at Robin. He stared at him for a moment before continuing "Sorry I didn´t pull the trigger."

Robin´s fist reacted immediately with fury, and he punched him in the face, making him fall back onto the floor. Knocked out, once again.

"Get him out of my face before I kill him. We got more important things to do." Robin said looking at Red X as he laid on the floor.

He went for the car and the Titans followed suit, heading back to the tower to figure out their next step.


	29. Chapter 29

"How are you holding up?" Wally asked Artemis when she was finally awake and sitting up carefully on the hospital wing´s bed. Her shirt was replaced and rolled up, revealing her bandaging.

"I´ve had better days." She answered. "Can you tell me how this happened? I can´t remember a thing."

"We wish we knew." Superboy answered for Wally. "It all happened in seconds."

"There was probably a sniper hiding somewhere around the area. Slade and Red X weren´t armed, and none of them opened fire if they were." Red Arrow commented looking out the window, to the beautiful view of the bay.

"And we got here how?" Artemis asked.

"Raven brought us back." M´gann answered. She sat still on her own bed, with her bandaged arm. Superboy sat beside her.

"M´gann, what happened to your arm?" She asked with wide eyes.

"Oh, Star snapped the bone back in place." She showed her bandaged with her now-normal looking arm. "No biggie, heh."

"Damn… these guys are definitely not playing around." Artemis said.

"My biggest worry is the fact that the League hasn´t heard from us in a week. We have forgotten that we need to send them a message, somehow if we want to stay a bit longer." Kaldur thought to himself out loud. He paused for a moment and looked at his wounded friend. "That is, IF you want to stay a little longer."

"We can´t leave them alone, not now." Artemis said. "They need our help."

"The Teen Titans are global. They can ask somebody else for help." Wally said from his seat beside her bed. "You almost died on us out there. I don´t think we should take that risk with anybody else again."

"Wally´s right." Robin spoke up. Aqualad turned to look at him. "But we are here right now, and if we can help them we will. At least I will. No matter how big the risk is."

"That´s not your duty Robin." Red Arrow said.

"Well, it will be in the future" Robin said. "We are all shaken about what happened but it shouldn´t stop us from helping the Titans. They need all the help they can get."

Aqualad thought for a moment about this.

"You should have a talk with yourself, Robin. See what he thinks. After all, he took us in all this time and helped us out." He said.

Robin nodded. "I will."

A few moments later the medical wing´s doors opened and the group of soaking wet titans walked inside. Cyborg walked in last carrying Star on his arms and placed her on a bed opposite to Artemis´. She laid down, complaining in low voice about the pain.

"Where were you guys? What happened?" Robin asked his older self.

"Slade happened, again." He answered coldly. He walked up to Star and started treating the wounds on her face.

"What´s up with him?" Wally mouthed to Cyborg.

"We´re on our last nerve with this guy, but that´s not what matters." Cyborg approached a computer nearby and a few pinpoints fell over the city map that was displayed.

"There, there and there." He said. "Slade is using a weapon that´s similar to a bomb if I´m correct. According to my investigations, once it detonates they can cause mass destruction up to a 10-mile radius."

Robin´s eyes widened at this. The younger hero walked up to Cyborg, looking at the screen for himself.

"Jump City Central?" He asked about the location of the weapons.

"It's the center of the city. Where the mayor resides, and the main hospital, offices, parks and buildings are. A lot of people are there, every day, at every moment." Raven stated. "You may say it´s our ´Times Square'."

"So what´s the plan?" Robin asked his older self. Who just stared at the screen as well.

"The plan is…" He paused for a moment. "We gear up and we leave. Guys, you should stay."

Robin protested. "What? You guys are going to get killed out there! You must evacuate everybody and then try to minimize the weapon´s power so that nobody in a 10-mile radius can be hit. If you get hit you are done for."

"I know." Robin said as he walked closer to him calmly. "It´s a risk we´re going to have to take."

His younger side thought for a moment. "Well, it´s a risk I am going to take as well."

The Titan Leader felt all eyes on him. "I know myself and I know that I won´t be able to stop you. I just need you to think about the consequences. If something happens to any of you, your whole timeline can be messed up the future could be completely different."

"That won´t happen." Robin said, reassuringly.

His older self-pinched the bridge of his nose, praying for patience. _"Jesus Christ now I know how Bruce felt."_ He thought to himself.

"Your team needs you, Robin." He said, keeping his eyes closed.

"And so does yours. And you won´t be of any help by lying lifeless on the ground will you?" Robin stated coldly.

His older self opened his eyes and looked at him. Sighing deeply, somebody broke the silence in the room.

"We're coming with you, Robin." Aqualad said, making his decision.

"Alright then, gear up and I´ll meet you in the common room in 5. We don´t have much time." The titan leader said, patting Kaldur on his back reassuringly on the way out.

He motioned to Star to come with him to his room, and each titan followed suit, and so did the rest of the teams.

Superboy and Wally stayed with the injured girls, before they could say anything M´gann spoke.

"Go with them." She said. "We´ll be fine, I´ll look out for her."

Artemis squeezed Wally´s hand reassuringly. "It´ll be fine."

The guys looked at each other.

"If anything happens, just call." Superboy said.

"Will do." M´gann said.

Wally and Superboy said their goodbyes and left the room. The girls sighed and looked back at the screen.

"It´s going to be a long night." Artemis said.


	30. Chapter 30

"Star help me load up my utility belt." Robin said passing it to her.

She moved over to where Robin kept his weapons, and as Beast-boy called it, thing-a-majigs.

"What else were you planning on taking?" She asked while she scanned the various minimal sized weapons.

"Anything will do, just make sure it can help in a worst-case scenario." He said.

"Understood." She said, picking out ad placing them lined up neatly on his belt.

He looked away from the mirror to look at her. Her eyes focused and fixed on what she was doing, and she had no clue he was looking. He sighed for a moment and walked up to her. She happily took the utility belt and displayed it to him as if it were a masterpiece.

"Voilà monsieur." She said.

Robin cocked an eyebrow, taking it and putting it on back again. "You speak French?" He asked.

"Oui." She said quietly. "Speedy knew some French so he helped me out sometime last year." A smile started to draw itself on her face.

"Oh." Robin said uninterested, still adjusting his belt. Then what Star had said dawned on him. He raised his head and crossed his arms across his chest. "OH?"

Starfire offered a smile and a cute little laugh, punching his shoulder lightly. "I am just playing with you."

"I think I´m going to have to kick Speedy´s ass, right?" He kept the joke playing.

"Well if you want to, that´s not going to make me unlearn French." She winked playfully.

He widened his eyes and nodded, impressed. "Earth has changed you." He said, acting hurt.

"Has it?" Suddenly concern crossed her eyes and her expression. "Really?"

Robin took her hands in hers. "No, Star. It´s just an expression." He placed them on his chest gingerly.

"You´re still the same beautiful girl that I had the luck to meet." He said.

Starfire blushed a bit at this and lowered her head. Robing raised her chin and looked her in the eyes.

"Promise me you´ll be careful today out there." He said. "You´ve already been badly hurt and I don´t want to see you like that again."

She nodded softly. "Promise."

"Good." He said, grabbing her face and quickly enveloping her in a deep kiss. This wasn´t like the last kiss they had back at Grace´s house, this kiss was full of true pure love, not lust. Robin pulled away from the kiss and rested his forehead on hers.

"Promise me you will be safe as well." She said, seriousness in her voice.

Her question took him for surprise. Although he knew that he had past fights with Slade in which he ended up badly injured.

"I Promise." He said after some silence.

"Good." She said, squeezing him into another hug.

"I love you, Star." He said.

A little smile appeared on her face. "And I do too, Robin."

* * *

Both teams had heard the plan three times already. They had reviewed their steps and were ready for anything that was going to come their way. They had a plan A, B, and even C. However, they knew there was still a slight possibility that Slade might bring something new up. They decided to ignore it for the sake of their sanity.

While the teams were preparing and arming themselves for battle, including bulletproof gear, Robin walked up to his older self.

"Do you still feel your stomach turn in these moments?" He asked.

Robin laughed silently. "Kind of, yes." He crossed his arms against his chest. "I guess that never stopped happening."

They both looked over to what everyone was doing. Focused on their tasks, making sure they had everything they needed.

"Just some advice for the future…" Robin turned to look at his younger self. "Don´t try to solve things on your own. Ever." He looked back at his team. "It´s always going to be better with a little help."

"Yeah." The younger hero spoke up. "I understand what you mean."

"I´m really sorry that so many of you got hurt during these missions. You didn´t deserve any of this." Robin said, looking to the floor. "You didn´t even decide to end up here."

"Well, luckily, we did." His younger self said. "I´m glad I could help my future team out, without having to go through puberty and skipping more of Bruce´s brooding and lessons."

Robin couldn´t help but snort at the comment. "It´s not as bad as you think." He said.

"What? Bruce?" The youngster asked.

"Nah, puberty." Robin said. "The best years of your life will come after that." He said flashing a sly smirk at him and wiggling his eyebrows.

"That comment is still weird, even if I say it myself in the future." Robin commented. "It´s all so weird."

"Hopefully after tonight, everything will go back to normal." Robin said. Looking at the group of heroes in front of him. Ready for their final mission and waiting for further orders.

"Off we go, then."


	31. Chapter 31

Night time was quickly falling over Jump City. Every single night club, park, and store was full of people enjoying the night and walking around the place. Especially in Jump City Central. The first thing the titans did was to make sure everyone had evacuated within a ten-mile radius, which was a pretty big area to clear, but with a few contacts, Cyborg managed to get in touch with the mayor and organize an evacuation. They didn´t want any more civilians hurt, or at least, they wanted to keep minimum numbers of people hurt that can receive proper medical immediately. Once they were sure Jump City Central was left empty, the mission had started.

There were three important spots that were very high risk in Jump City Central, and were the first ones to be evacuated. The subway station, mayor´s office, and Jump City News Central. Both the teams would cover each one of these until the weapon was found, and then proceed to deactivate it. Slade did not reveal how much time they had, since he spoke about 'minutes', but the Titans had learned to know him, and if there was something Slade could do very well was lying, and convincing.

Cyborg, Wally and Red Arrow were the first one to get to the scene, and took over JCNC´s building immediately, searching for the weapon. Cyborg had developed a scanning device that helped him find any explosives near him or the tower as a safety precaution. He decided to duplicate just in case, and it really came in handy for this situation. The three heroes headed for the basement as soon as they walked in.

"Split up and search the place. If anything looks odd, let me know." Cyborg said.

Wally and Red Arrow nodded and did as they were told.

Cyborg reached for his communicator and spoke. "Robin, the JCNC tower is being searched."

"Great, keep your eyes open." He said. He turned around to the remaining heroes.

"Keep your comm-lines open, and let me know if anything happens." Robin said.

They all nodded in understanding, and split up in their groups, reaching the spots they had to search. Superboy, Beast boy, and the younger Robin headed to the subway station, each one of them also equipped with Cyborg´s scanner. The looked through every piece of machinery that they could find. Electrical boxes, the trains that where halted during the evacuation, every wire, every door, but still found nothing. After a few minutes they came back together and reached the Titan´s leader on his communicator.

"We found nothing here." Superbody said.

"Noted." Robin said, searching his spot as well. Him and the rest of the team had split up throughout the mayor´s office building which was 43 stories high and had lots of places to be searched through. But after 10 minutes passed, none of them found anything.

"I think the weapon might be concealed, or insulated in a way so that the scanner can´t pick it up." Cyborg told Robin through his communicator. "But how? There´s no way a machine with such proportions of damage can be hidden that easily."

"Maybe it´s somewhere else." Kaldur commented.

"By the time we finish searching the whole place the bomb will lready blown up half the city." Wally said.

Before the leader could say anything, he heard gunshots coming from outside. He jumped up and bolted outside, where he found Slade and Red-X along with his army, standing over a tank like he was at war. The rest of the heroes also came outside, surrounding them.

"So smart of you to evacuate the place." Slade said, lowering his gun down. "But the citizens were not the only ones in danger."

Red X crouched into the tank, and after a few seconds came out carrying an unconscious Artemis in his arms. After him, a weak M´gann came outside, holding her when he put her on her feet.

"Shit." Wally breathed.

"Should´ve evacuated the tower as well, don´t you think?" Slade said. Robin narrowed his eyes at him, menacingly.

"Titans, Go!" He yelled in a war cry.

The heroes lunged at their opponent and his army, each of them fighting full of rage and built up anger. Wally went directly for Red X while Superboy tried to get the girls away from them and to safety. He circled Red X and went full speed while doing it, cutting out his oxygen supply. Red X quickly went choking to the ground, just where Wally wanted him. He grabbed his collar and planted a punch on his face. Red X quickly shook it off and pushed himself away from Wally, throwing X´s at him. Wally dodged them easily and ran up to him, picking him up once again and pushing him on the tank´s walls. Red X groaned in pain.

"Where is the bomb." He asked in a serious tone.

"Bite me." Red X answered, barely able to speak.

Wally pulled him away from the tank and quickly pushed him into it once again. Red X yelped out in pain once again, trying to fight himself out of Wally´s hand to no avail.

Red X brought his head up and looked directly across the speedster. His masked eyes frozen in fear while Wally could see a small hint of light glowing through them.

"It´s in the JCNC last level, hidden in between the wiring." He spit out. Right after he did, his head lolled to the side and he fell unconscious.

Wally dropped him and turned around to fins Raven´s eyes glowing, her arms extended towards the villain. Her eyes darkened to their normal color and she looked at Wally, nodding in understanding.

Wally quickly sped in between his friends while they fought for their lives, searching for Cyborg. If they were going to shut down the bomb, they had to do so now.

* * *

Robin extended his bo-staff, hitting Slade directly to the ribs, which made him loose balance. When he did the boy wonder jumped and kicked his mask full force. He didn´t wait for the villain to get back on his feet, instead, he kept kicking, and punching, and lunging at him.

"Is that the way you should respect your elders?" Slade said in between punches.

"You don´t deserve any respect." He said full of anger.

Slade managed to grab one of Robin´s fist before it landed on his face. "Be grateful I haven´t killed any of your friends yet." He pushed his fist and Robin tried with all his force to keep his arm extended.

"You know I can do so with just a touch of a button, Robin." Slade said. Robbin dropped his arms and reached for his birdarangs, planting on of them on Slade´s chest. A blinking red light appeared, just before it blew up in smoke and sparks.

"I´m not scared of your threats, Slade." Robin said. When the smoke cleared a bit, Robin took a quick look towards his teammates that were left fighting the sladebots. They were still holding up a fight, but he could already see they were injured badly, and their fighting became sloppy by the minute. He didn´t know for how long they could keep on fighting.

Robin´s communicator buzzed and Wally´s voice spoke up.

"Robin, we found the bomb. Cyborg is working on detonating it." He paused for a moment. "We need you guys to hold on for a bit longer."

"How much?" Robin asked, not taking his eyes away from his present and past teammates.

Static fell over the line, then Wally´s voice spoke up again. "5 minutes."

Robin cringed a bit. Five minutes really did seem like an eternity in this state. But he would do his best to keep everybody steady until then.

"Done." He said, while jumping back on the street kicking a slade bot on its face.

Starfire and Raven were fighting hand to hand to bring the robots down, but every blow they gave didn't seem to damage them at all.

A Slade bot kicked Star square on her stomach and threw her to the ground. It placed itself on top of her, shooting a laser dangerously close to her eyes.

"Raven!" She screamed from the ground. "You are going to have to 'kick up the notch'!"

Raven turned around and gasped at the scene. Star´s arms were trying with all her might to keep the bot away but it was getting too close to her.

"Star… I can´t…" She started.

"Yes! Yes you can! Trust me!" Star said grunting by the tremendous effort she was summoning to keep the metallic villain away from her. "I promise it will be fine, just do it!"

Raven breathed in deeply and started to chant silently.

"Azarath…"

The slade bots were kicking the young heroes down one by one, mercilessly.

"Metrion…"

Suddenly, they all enveloped in black magic.

"ZINTHOS!"

In a swift movement, they all rose from the ground they stood on, and crashed back into it, most of them breaking apart. The ones remaining, started struggling.

Raven extended her arms to them and threw them against a building wall, breaking them all apart. She screamed in anger, now picking up cars that were parked around the street and traffic signs.

"Look out!" Kaldur yelled out. All of the heroes duck to the ground while the cars and signs flew above them, crashing into building, trees and whatever was in the way, including Slade, that was brought down by a car that was swung his way.

"Raven, stop!" Starfire stood up trying to reach her friend. She grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes, glowing red with fury. Raven´s magic took a grip of her neck and raised her up. The redhead gasped for air.

Robin and Beast boy looked at each other from a distance and started running towards the empath.

Star could only gasp for air as Raven´s grip became stronger with every struggle.

"Raven, let her go!" Red Arrow tried reaching her to no avail. Kaldur and Superboy ran towards her only to get kicked back by the force caused by the swing of her hand.

Robin and Beast boy got to reach her and grabbed her arms, trying to bring them down.

"Raven you´re going to kill her!" Beast boy yelled at her in horror. "Stop this!"

Robin looked at Starfire then at M´gann, who was sitting on the sidelines with Artemis, watching the scene unfold in disbelief. He looked at her and nodded.

M´gann stood up, and used her good arm to extend it towards Raven. Her eyes were glowing blue, and in a second Raven´s eyes widened and darkened. She fell to the ground unconscious and dropped Starfire as well.

Landing on her back, Starfire desperately coughed uncontrollably and gasped for air. Robin helped her sit up so she could compose herself.

"You´re fine Star, just breathe." He said putting a hand on her back, tucking her wild red hair behind her ear.

She grabbed her neck as she gained more control of her breathing, looking at Raven.

"Is Raven ok?" She asked in a whisper, worried about her friend.

"She is, M´gann just knocked her out for a minute so she could let you go." Robin said.

"I can´t believe I made her do this." Tears started to fill up her eyes. "I promised her she would be fine."

Before he could say anything Robin heard an explosion go off behind them. He had totally forgotten about Slade disappearing right after his birdarang had go off. He didn´t have time to stand up when he saw Robin and Superboy appearing from near the place where it exploded.

"He´s gone." Robin stated. "No trace of him or X."

"Guys? Come in? Anyone?" Wally´s voice spoke up once again through the communicators. "The bomb was shut down. We´re safe now."

Robin sighed in relief at the news, and couldn´t help but to hold Star close to him in a comforting way.

"It´s okay, Star." He said silently. "Raven is okay and this is all over now."

" _At least I hope so._ " He thought to himself.

The empath fluttered her eyes open and the first thing she saw was his green friend looking over her.

"There you are." He said, slowly caressing her face. "How are you feeling?"

Her eyes widened in horror immediately. "Did I kill her?" She asked frantically. Beast boy´s silence shocked her even more and she sat up abruptly, tears falling down her face. "I killed Starfire. Beast boy I killed her, how am I going to forgive myself, what have I done?!" She covered her mouth with her hands in shock and disbelief.

"Raven stop, you didn´t kill anyone." He said, taking her hands in his. "Star´s fine. You saved us."

She looked around and saw Robin help her up a few steps away from her.

Quickly she stood up and ran up to her friend, enveloping her in a hug.

Star cringed a bit at the sudden hug. Her body still ached from the fall. But she was glad her friend was doing well. Tears started falling once again from her eyes.

"I´m sorry I made you do that, Raven. I broke my promise." She said in between sobs.

"It´s fine, Star. I´m just glad you´re ok." Raven´s tears uncontrollably fell from her eyes. "Oh God, I thought I had killed you." She hugged her friend tighter as the rest of the heroes huddled together as well, watching them silently.

M´gann and Artemis quickly joined the group, receiving hugs from Superboy and Wally, respectively. Who would´ve thought the busiest part of the city would be so quiet. It was only them there, and nothing else to worry about. Not anymore.


End file.
